By Dan Ambrose: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (40-12-2, 28 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his title against #5 WBO Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO’s) on March 1st at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, according to RingTV. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reporting that the fight is a done deal, and he’s trying to set up a rematch between former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against Brian Vera.
Orlando Salido
Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Orlando Salido on March 1st
By Chris Williams: Two-time Olympic gold medalist for Ukraine Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO’s) is saying that he’ll be challenging WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (40-12-2, 28 KO’s) for his title on March 1st, according to Fightnews.com. If this fight does indeed take place, Top Rank, the promoters for the 25-year-old Lomachenko, will be taking a huge gamble by putting him out there with the had hitting and much more experienced Salido.
This would be like throwing Lomachenko to the wolves, because he did not look that good in beating Jose Ramirez by a 4th round TKO last month. Lomachenko was outworked by Ramirez and hit a lot in that short fight. If it was a fighter with any kind of power and an ability to take body shots, Lomachenko would have lost the fight.
Gary Russell Jr. talks about his career, Orlando Salido and Abner Mares
By Ian Aldous: Gary Russell Jr. (23-0) stands on the verge of a guaranteed world championship fight in 2014. A wealth of amateur wins and medals at U.S championships, world championships and junior Olympics, as well as an unbeaten professional career thus far, have prepared him for this impending opportunity. The 2008 Olympic games were the sole low-point of his life as a boxer to date. Last week Gary took some time to talk with me ahead of an exciting year for himself and his team.
As previously mentioned, Gary was a standout amateur performer, capturing a 2004 junior Olympic games gold medal and in 2005 he won both the U.S championship and Golden Gloves at the tender age of sixteen. A bronze medal at the 2005 world championship followed as well as more national titles. Qualification for the 2008 Olympic games should have been the pinnacle for Gary but unfortunately he failed to make weight and didn’t fight at the tournament.
Russell Jr. to face Salido-Lomachenko winner
By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Organization has made #2 WBO Gary Russell Jr. (23-0, 13 KO’s) the mandatory challenger to WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido, and given him 180 days to fight him. If Salido hasn’t faced Russell Jr. by that time then they will likely strip him of his title. Salido has permission to take an optional title defense against Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko on January 25th, but the winner of that fight must face Russell Jr. by April 12th.
That’s not much time for the Salido vs. Lomachenko to go between fighting each other and having to face Russell Jr. It’s about 2 1/2 months between the Salido-Lomachenko fight and a title defense against Russell Jr. If the winner of that fight suffers a cut or some other kind of injury, it’s going to make it necessary to push the fight against Russell Jr. into the future, as long as the WBO agrees to it.
Arum wants Lomachenko vs. Salido on January 25th
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is ready to put two-time Olympic Gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO’s) in with newly crowned two-time WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (40-12-2, 28 KO’s) on January 25th at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lomachenko, 25, won his pro debut last Saturday night in stopping Jose Ramirez (25-4, 15 KO’s) in the 4th round at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Salido fought on the same card and defeated Orlando Cruz by a 7th round TKO win to capture the vacant WBO featherweight title that had previously belonged to Mikey Garcia.
Donaire wants winner of Salido vs. Cruz fight
By Chris Williams: If Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) can get past his right with 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) on November 9th, Donaire reportedly wants to fight the winner of the October 12th fight between Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) and Orlando Cruz (20-2-1, 10 KO’s) for the WBO featherweight title, according to Philboxing.com.
Salido and Cruz will be battling for the vacant WBO 126 lb. title. By Donaire going after the winner of that fight, he’ll be taking the path of least resistance in trying to win one of the featherweight titles.
Mikey Garcia to have surgery to repair broken nose
By Dan Ambrose: Newly crowned WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KO’s) will be having surgery to repair his broken nose from his fight with former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido on January 19th of this month at Madison Square Garden, New York. Garcia clashed heads with Salido in the 8th round, and suffered a broken nose from it.
It was an accidental head-butt and the fight was quickly stopped after the 8th round due to Mikey saying he couldn’t breathe through his nose. Salido suffered an arguably much worse injury of a fractured right orbital bone in the same fight, but he wanted to keep fighting.
Salido broke orbital bone against Garcia
By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) suffered a broken right orbital bone in his 8th round technical decision loss to Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KO’s) last Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Salido’s manager Sean Gibbons believes Salido suffered the broken orbital bone in the first round when Salido was dropped twice in the round by hard left hands from Mikey. Salido was ultimately knocked down four times in the fight, twice in the 1st, once in the 3rd and once in the 4th.
However, Salido toughed it out and wasn’t going to quit or complain to his corner, referee or ringside doctor that he had injured his right eye. By the 7th, Salido’s right eye was bruising and turning purple. It looked like it was in the process of slowly closing and it’s possible that it would have closed in the last four rounds had the fight gone that far.
Salido to move up to 130, will be fighting in May
By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) plans on moving up to super featherweight and will be fighting in May in Mexico, according to fightnews.com. Salido lost his WBO title to Mikey Garcia last Saturday night by an 8th round technical decision after a clash of heads in the 8th broke Mikey’s nose. The fight was allowed to go to the scorecards and Mikey was given an 8 round technical decision win.
Salido will be fighting a 10 round bout in May at super featherweight, after that he’ll reportedly be taking on WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (26-1-2, 16 KO’s) in September. Martinez is coming off of a controversial 12 round draw against Juan Carlos Burgos last Saturday night on the same card as the Salido-Garcia fight. A lot of boxing fans felt that Burgos should have been given the decision due to his good body work in the fight.
Did Mikey take the easy way out against Salido?
By Dan Ambrose: Mikey Garcia had a chance to really shine and impress in beating WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido last night by an 8th round technical decision, but the way the fight ended with Mikey saying he couldn’t breathe because of a broken nose in the 8th, it really took the shine out of the performance completely.
Salido, who had been knocked down four times earlier in the fight when Garcia had a lot energy, was coming back and punishing Mikey in the last three rounds before the fight was stopped after the 8th.
The stoppage gave the impression to some boxing fans that the tiring Mikey was looking to get saved from what could have been a really tough last four rounds.