Miguel Roman vs. Orlando Salido – Results

By Boxing News - 12/10/2017 - Comments

Image: Miguel Roman vs. Orlando Salido - Results

By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Orlando ‘Siri’ Salido (44-14-4, 31 KOs) announced his retirement tonight after getting stopped in round 9 by #5 WBC Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman (58-12, 45 KOs) on Saturday night in a fight televised by HBO Boxing After Dark from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/HBO Boxing)

The 32-year-old Roman pinned the 37-year-old Salido to the ropes in the 9th. He then unloaded on Salido until he slid down onto the canvas. Referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight at that moment. Salido had been knocked down in the previous round by Roman in the 8th after getting hit by a 3-punch combination. Salido was also down in the 4th. He was badly hurt on each occasion, which is why Byrd decided to stop the fight. Salido had nothing more to give.

Salido had Roman hurt at the end of round 1 after nailing him with a huge right hand that caused his legs to wobble. Roman had dominated the action in the opening round until Salido caught him with that big shot. From round 2, Roman controlled the fight in getting the better of Salido. There were times in which Salido would do well in putting his punches together like old times, but he was never able to sustain his attacks for the entire rounds.

“It’s a matter of age. It takes its toll,” said Salido. “I’m done. This is it. This was it. I’m going.”

Salido had reportedly had problems making weight for the fight. Salido looked drained at the weigh-in, and he seemed lethargic tonight inside the ring. It wasn’t the same Salido that we’d seen from him in past fights. The energy was gone.

The entire fight, Roman was able to bull Salido to the ropes and keep him pinned there for vast stretches of the fight. Roman unloaded on Salido when he had him against the ropes. Salido couldn’t get leverage on his shots to trade as well as he would have liked to. When Salido would get the action back in the center of the ring, Roman would again drive him to the ropes by pushing him there.

Salido couldn’t stay off the ropes no matter how hard he tried. That was obviously a sign of age. If this fight had taken place last year or 2 years ago, Salido would have hammered Roman unmercifully if he tried to pin him against the ropes. Salido was a far better fighter during his prime than Roman. There’s no comparison.

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Salido didn’t look anything like the fighter that had brawled with former WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas last year in June in fighting to a 12 round draw.

With the win, Roman will now challenge for a world title against WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt next. That’s a fight that Roman will have a hard time winning, because Berchelt isn’t going to allow him to bull him to the ropes. That’s not going to work. If Roman is going to win that fight, he’ll need to come up with some other tactic than pushing Berchelt against the ropes and pinning him there.

Roman was a replacement opponent for Salido, who was scheduled originally to fight for a world title against WBC 130 lb. champion Berchelt. He couldn’t take the fight due to a hand injury, so Roman was asked to step in and fight Salido instead. HBO wanted the Salido-Roman fight to be a 10 round bout instead of a 12 rounder. As it turns out, it didn’t matter that the fight wasn’t scheduled for 12 rounds. Salido didn’t have the youth to go the full 12 rounds with Roman. As bad as Salido fought tonight, he’s lucky he didn’t fight Berchelt, because he would have been knocked out much sooner. Berchelt is a very good fighter, and it would have been one-sided.

The news of Salido losing to Roman probably didn’t make WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl ‘Hi-Tech’ Lomachenko and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank happy, as they were hoping to schedule a fight against Salido. Lomachenko has wanted to avenge his loss to Salido ever since losing to him 3 years ago in 2014. Salido was 34 at the time and still in the prime of his career when he beat Lomachenko. It would have served no purpose for Lomachenko to fight him at this point in his career because he clearly wasn’t the same fighter he was in 2014 when he beat him. If Lomachenko wants to try and grab some kind of moral victory, he can always schedule a fight against Mickey Roman and look to beat him. If Lomachenko defeats Roman, he can tell the boxing public that he beat the man that beat him. I don’t think the boxing fans will care too much. Lomachenko’s loss has already been forgotten by a lot of the fans. It happened too long ago for the newer boxing fans to be aware of it.

Image: Miguel Roman vs. Orlando Salido - Results

Image: Miguel Roman vs. Orlando Salido - Results

Image: Miguel Roman vs. Orlando Salido - Results