By Dan Ambrose: If there was ever a case where Top Rank promoter Bob Arum should be looking to protect one of his golden geese it’s with this fight where his fighter Juan Manuel Lopez (31-1, 28 KO’s) will be trying to avenge an 8th round TKO loss to Orlando Salido (37-11-2, 25 KO’s) from last April.

Lopez, 28, and Salido will be fighting on March 31st in Puerto Rico. If Arum didn’t try and warn Lopez from taking this fight then he really should have because Salido really had Lopez’s number in their last fight, and if he can continue where he left off last time in blasting Lopez out, we could see a red faced, disoriented looking Lopez stumbling around the ring and taking big time punishment in another knockout loss.

It’s one thing losing once to a fighter by knockout, but a second defeat will be a huge blow to Lopez’s boxing career. I’m sure with Arum’s good match making Lopez could possibly find his way into grabbing another title, but he won’t be looked at in the same way by fans after Lopez gets beaten for a second time.

He could really suffer damage from another Salido beating because Lopez took a terrible beating the last time the two fighters met and it could be much worse this time if Lopez is able to make it into the later rounds instead of folding in the 8th. He’s not going to knock Salido out; let’s get that out in the open right away.

Lopez is used to knocking out the fodder that Arum has fed him in one or two rounds, but that won’t happen here. What this means of course is that Lopez is going to have to take a lot of heavy shots from Salido and will have to be in excellent shape for him to make it the full 12 rounds. I see Lopez getting tired, getting beaten and falling apart by the 11th.