Francisco Vargas

(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions) By Jim Dower: WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KOs) wilted down the stretch but was still able to scrape out a 12 round draw tonight against #3 WBC Orlando Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs) in a fight televised by HBO Championship Boxing from the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The judges saw the fight 114-114, 114-114 and 115-113 for Vargas.

You can argue that Salido should have edged the fight, but he was facing a champion. To beat a champion, you need to do more than judge defeat them by two to four rounds. You need to put them on the canvas and give them a good shellacking. Salido didn’t do that tonight. He just showed that he was better than Vargas and that he was the slightly better fighter tonight. That wasn’t going to be enough for him to get the win.

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(Photo credit: Chris Farina/Team Salido) By Jim Dower: WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) weighed in successfully on Friday in coming in at 129.6 pounds for his first defense of his WBC title against #3 WBC Orlando “Siri” Salido (43-13-3, 30 KOs) for their fight on Saturday night on HBO Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Salido, 30, weighed in right at the super featherweight upper limit at 130lbs. You have to wonder how much weight Salido will gain back after he rehydrates. He looked really big fight his fight against Vasyl Lomachenko a couple of years when he weighed in heavy for that fight, and then ballooned up in weight after the weigh-in. Lomachenko was arguably beaten by weight more than by the talent of Salido.

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By Gerardo Granados: Are you ready? This Saturday on June 4, at the Stub Hub Center, California, USA, WBC super featherweight champion Francisco “Bandido” Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) will try to defend his title against a rugged veteran, former titlist Orlando “Siri” Salido (43-13-3, 30 KOs). In this particular type of fights it is possible to not to require judges. In fact, this is a fight that not a single hard core fight fan can miss; maybe the boxing purist could also join us that night, because this bout has fight of the year potential written all over it since it was signed.

Today both fighters made the super featherweight limit, Vargas hit the scales at 129.6 and Salido 130 pounds. So the fight is on and I can wait for them to climb into the ring. Against Takashi Miura last November 2015, Bandido Vargas won by TKO9/12 and was awarded the fight of the year by The Ring Magazine and Boxingnews24. It was a great battle and if by any chance the reader hasn’t seen it yet, well then you should better search for it and enjoy.

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By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Orlando Salido (43-13-3, 30 KOs) will be challenging WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) this Saturday night on HBO Championship Boxing from the StubHub Center in Carson, California. This will be the 31-year-old Vargas’ first defense of his WBC title.

Vargas won the WBC belt with an exciting 9th round knockout win over WBC champion Takashi Miura last November in a grueling fight. Vargas was knocked down in the 4th round of the fight and looked to be on his way to losing the bout.

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By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) will be defending his title on June 4 against former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (43-13-3, 30 KOs) on HBO World Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The Vargas-Salido fight was made official on Friday for 6/4. It should be a great fight for as long as it lasts.

The 31-year-old Vargas captured the WBC 130lb title last November with an exciting 9th round knockout win over then WBC super featherweight champion Takashi Miura at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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