Juanma was up 86-84 on two of the judges’ scorecards before Salido stopped him

By Boxing News - 03/11/2012 - Comments

Image: Juanma was up 86-84 on two of the judges' scorecards before Salido stopped himBy Jason Kim: For boxing fans that had the pleasure to watch WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (38-11-2, 26 KO’s) successfully defend his title last night in a 10th round stoppage of former WBO champ Juan Manuel Lopez (31-2, 28 KO’s), a lot of the fans would likely be in shock to learn that two of the judges actually had the 28-year-old Lopez ahead of the fight by the scores of 86-84 at the time the fight was halted in the 10th after Lopez was knocked down by Salido.

The other judge had the fight knotted it up 85-85. It’s a good thing that the 31-year-old Salido was able to get a stoppage because he may have been in danger of losing the fight or getting a draw at best. It’s pretty scary to watch the fight, which seemed to be well under control by Salido, and imagine that two of the judges had Lopez and head and a third saw it as even.

I only gave Lopez the 4th and 5th rounds, and that’s all I could see him him winning in the fight. The 8th round was slightly close, as Lopez came back and was firing a lot of shots. However, Salido was countering him very effectively throughout the round even when backed against the ropes. It was ineffective pressure from Lopez and not enough for him to win the 8th.

Other than the 4th, 5th and somewhat close round in the 8th, the fight was all Salido with his much higher work rate, bigger punches and imposing fighting style. Lopez was backing up and circling much of the fight until he tried to turn things around by coming at Salido starting in the 8th. To be sure, Lopez fought much better when he was pressing the attack than he had when he was just moving and trying to evade punishment, but it wasn’t enough.

Salido continued to land the bigger shots at a much higher rate. So how can two judges see things so differently from the boxing fans who watched the fight? Perhaps they were listening to the crowd noise when they would cheer loudly for every punch that Juanma would land, and this could have influenced the way they scored the fight. I heard the same cheers but I couldn’t ignore the shots that Salido was landing. Hearing the cheers is one thing, but looking at what was actually happening in the ring seemed to be fairly cut and dried. Salido was hurting Lopez all fight long in a pretty much one-sided fight from start to the brutal finish in the 10th.



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