(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok/SHOWTIME) By Jason Kim: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido is ready to fight Juan Manuel Lopez for a third time if he wants to take the risk of fighting him again after the 31-year-old Salido gave Lopez a frightful beating in stopping him in the 10th round in front of his Puerto Rican fans in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Salido knocked Lopez down with a left hand in the 10th after hurting him with a powerful right hand. Lopez stumbled to his feet but kept staggering, which caused the referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. to stop the fight at :32 of the round.

After the bout was over, Salido said “I knew here in Puerto Rico, to win the decision, I needed to land at least 2-1 in punches.”

Salido went on to say that he could give Lopez a third fight if he asked for it. Lopez, however, instead of leaping at the idea of facing Salido again like he did on the first time he was knocked out by him last year, said “Whatever my promoter says. I’m willing to fight with Salido or anyone else.”

That almost sounds like code for ‘I don’t want to fight Salido again,’ if you ask me. When fighters say they’ll do whatever their promoters want them to do, it suggests that they might be looking in another direction instead of taking a fight that might be a bit too tough for them. WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. often puts it on his promoter when people ask him why he won’t fight Sergio Martinez. Who could blame Martinez for not wanting to fight Salido again, if that’s what he’s really talking about.

Lopez took two bad beatings from him and showed pretty clearly in both fights that he’s not on the same level as the tough Mexican. A third fight for Lopez against Salido would be near career suicide. As it is, this loss is going to really hurt Lopez’s career in a big way. It’s not going to be over but he’s got a long ways to climb his way back to where he once was. Lopez’s promoter Bob Arum will probably put him back in with some easy marks for the next few fights and use up year in doing so of Lopez’s career. I don’t see it helping him much. He might need to move up in weight or something because he looked really weak.

Lopez was ahead in the fight on two of the judges’ score cards by the scores of 86-85, 86-85 at the time of the stoppage. The third judge had it 85-84 for Salido.