By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Orlando Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs) won’t be facing WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) in a rematch despite the interest from the Ukrainian fighter and his promoter Bob Arum.
Salido, 36, doesn’t like the idea of fighting someone that is going to be running and holding all night long, which is what Lomachenko did all night in their previous encounter two years ago in 2014, Salido beat Lomachenko by a 12 round split decision in a fight for the vacant WBO World featherweight title.
Despite being Lomachenko, Salido didn’t get much credit for the win, because he came in 2 pounds over the limit for the fight. A big fuss was made about Salido being a little over the limit, but there wasn’t a fuss made about all the clinching Lomachenko did in the fight. He was holding all night long to keep Salido from hitting him to the body.
“Orlando voiced to me, ‘Hey, why do I want to fight a guy in Lomachenko who I know is going to run, grab and hold when I can go Mexican-to-Mexican with Francisco Vargas and give the people what they really want see,” said Salido’s manager Sean Gibbons to RingTV.com. ”The only guys who want to see Lomachenko — are Lomachenko.”
You can’t blame Salido for wanting to fight guys like Francisco Vargas again, because their fight last June was an exciting affair. Vargas stood in the pocket and fought in a toe-to-toe manner with Salido for 12 rounds. The fight was scored a draw, but a lot of boxing fans thought Salido should have won. The same goes for Salido’s previous fight against Roman “Rocky” Martinez in September 2015. I thought Salido won both of those fights. But you can understand why the 36-year-old Salido would want to fight guys that stand in front of him and actually fight.
It would be the same thing for Lomachenko. If he was nearing 40, I kind of doubt that he would like to be matched against someone that runs around the ring holding him for 12 rounds. I think Lomachenko would prefer guys that fight. If Lomachenko is still in the game when he’s 36, I’m betting he’s not going to want a runner or a clincher for him to be fighting.
If Salido can’t get a rematch against Vargas, then he’ll find someone to fight, because he’s a very popular fighter on HBO, because he produces great fights. I much prefer watching Salido fight than seeing Lomachenko, and I don’t think I’m in the minority. I think a lot of boxing fans enjoy watching Salido fight, and I think they like the way he fights better than Lomachenko. If you’re into watching fighters that hit and don’t get hit in return, then Lomachenko is your guy. But if you like to watch exciting fighters like Gennady Golovkin, who gets hit quite a bit, then Salido is the one you’re going to want to watch.
It’s not in Salido’s best interest to fight a runner like Lomachenko. For one, Salido would be chasing Lomachenko all around the ring all night. Two, there likely wouldn’t be a whole lot of fan interest from the casual boxing fans. Salido can get a lot more fan interest by fighting Vargas again or Rocky Martinez. Either of those would be HUGE fights. Salido vs. Lomachenko 2 would be a fight that only hardcore fans would be interested in seeing in my view. Salido is better off facing guys that come to fight than having to deal with running and clinching from Lomachenko for 12 rounds.