By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight champion Orlando Salido (35-11-2, 23 KO’s) has decided to take an easy stay busy tune-up fight against non-top 15 ranked Mike Oliver (24-2, 8 KO’s) on July 23 at the Centro de Usos Multiples, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. Salido, 30, wanted to be able to defend his title in his home country of Mexico before fighting a rematch against former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez in November in a fight that will be taking place in Lopez’s home country of Puerto Rico.
Salido shocked the boxing world in April by stopping Lopez n the 8th round. Lopez took a great deal of punishment in that fight, especially after the 4th round. In their rematch, you can probably assume that the ring size and gloves will be to Lopez’s liking. However, the chances are high that Salido will knock Lopez out again because he really seemed to have Lopez’s number in that fight and wasn’t bothered by his power it all. Lopez has been having issues when fighting into the later rounds recently, and a rematch with Salido would almost defintely be a fight that will be going past the 7th. If Lopez can’t score an early knockout look for him to take a beating and get stopped again.
As for Oliver, this is a nice safe pick for Salido, as the 31-year-old Oliver hasn’t fought a lot of quality fighters during his 10 year pro career and was slapped down badly in back to back knockout losses to Reynaldo Lopez and Antonio Escalante when Oliver tried to step it up against better fighters in 2008. Since then, it’s been back to 2nd tier opposition for Oliver and he’s done well, beating three of his last four opponents.
Against a hard puncher like Salido, Oliver will have serious problems and may not make it to the 6th round. Salido punches hard and is very skilled. He can be out-boxed, as we saw with Juan Manuel Marquez and Yuriorkis Gamboa both beating him. However, it takes an especially good fighter to do this, and I don’t see Oliver being able to hang with Salido for long.
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