Rod Salka

Francisco ‘El Bandido’ Vargas faces Rod Salka on April 12 on ESPN

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Image: Francisco 'El Bandido' Vargas faces Rod Salka on April 12 on ESPN

Two-time Fight of the Year winner and former WBC Super Featherweight World Champion Francisco “El Bandido” Vargas (24-1-2, 17 KOs) will continue his effort to regain a world title as he faces “Lightning” Rod Salka (24-4, 4 KOs) in a 10-round super featherweight fight in the main event of the April 12 edition of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif. ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes will air the fights beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT, and stream live on ESPN3 starting at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT.

Salka defeats Duran, Pittsburgh’s undefeated Fab Four roll on

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Image: Salka defeats Duran, Pittsburgh's undefeated Fab Four roll on

By Shea Smith: Integrity Fighter Management and Olivino’s LLC brought boxing back to the Monroeville Convention Center. A healthy crowd of 715 came out to see a night of solid exciting matchups. Pittsburgh’s Fab Four: undefeated prospects (2-0) Oleg “Ukraine Pitbull” Dovhun, (2-0) Lyubomyr “Demolition Man” Pinchuk, (6-0) Gerald “G5″Sherrell, and (8-0) Amonte “The Magician” Eberhardt.

Rod Salka vs. Justin Savi this Saturday

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Image: Rod Salka vs. Justin Savi this Saturday

By Patrick McHugh: Super featherweight Rod Salka (22-4, 4 KOs) will be fighting this Saturday night against Justin Savi (28-6-2, 18 KOs) in an eight round fight at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, Pennsylvania.

The 33-year-old Salka was supposed to be fighting Wilberth Lopez on the card, but that fight was scratched in favor of Salka facing the 31-year-old Savi. It’s arguably a more winnable fight for the 5’7” Salka, who is trying to make something happen with his career following a devastating 2nd round knockout loss to Danny Garcia two years ago in August 2014.

That was a fight that probably should have never happened in the first place. Salka was fighting at super feather and he got pulled up all the way to welterweight to fight a much bigger, stronger and more talented Garcia.

Salka: Canelo will win the fight against Khan

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1-DSC07279By Dan Ambrose: Super featherweight Rod Salka (21-3, 4 KOs), who is known for being the opponent for Danny Garcia in 2014 in a catch-weight, says that he sees WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs0 defeating Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) in their fight on May 7.

Salka thinks Khan has the better boxing skills than Canelo. However, he still thinks Canelo is still going to get to Khan eventually and beat him. Salka is hoping that Khan can win the fight somehow, but he’s not willing to bet on that happening.

Danny Garcia talks about his mismatch with Rod Salka

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garcia565By Dan Ambrose: If you were wondering why WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) agreed to fight a little unranked lightweight named Rod Salka (19-4, 3 KOs) in his last fight on Showtime this month, Garcia says that he’s thinking about his career. He says fighters have a short career, and it’s a business thing.

“Fans last forever; boxing is a short-term career,” Garcia said to Fighthype. “I got to do what’s best for my life and my career. You can be 70-years-old and a fan. I can only box for another 10 years. I got to do what’s best for me.”

Garcia-Salka “Fight card” averaged 612K viewers last Saturday on Showtime

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garciaBy Dan Ambrose: As expected, last Saturday’s Danny Garcia vs. Rod Salka triple-header fight card on Showtime brought in poor numbers. It was a night of mismatches, and the poor numbers reflect dismal match-making that was done for this fight.

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, the card averaged 612K viewers. The main event fight between Garcia and unranked lightweight Rod Salka averaged 808K viewers with a peak of 850. This was 17% lower than Garcia’s last fight against Mauricio Herrera, which brought in 972K. The poor match-making for Garcia led to a lower amount of viewers.

The co-feature fight between IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and #13 IBF Edgar Santana averaged 648K. This too was a mismatch with Peterson hitting Santana at will until the ringside doctor ordered the fight stopped in the 10th.

Garcia destroys Salka!

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Garcia Salka Fight Night-0011(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok / SHOWTIME) By Bob Smith: In a dominant win last night, WBA, WBC and Ring magazine light welterweight champion Danny Garcia defeated Rod “lightening rod” Salka by a 2nd round knockout. After a quiet round one, in which Rod Salka circled the ring, jabbed and used movement to avoid the left hook of Garcia, Danny Garcia dominated the second round with counter punching and landed the much harder shots to put Salka down three times and achieve the TKO victory.

It was a fight that was hard to watch after the first knockdown from Garcia, who hurt Salka a great deal with a punch in the earlier part of the second round. Salka immediately looked to the referee for protection against Garcia and ended up going down about five seconds later. Following this knockdown, Garcia focused on putting Salka away, and consistently threw very big punches while Salka attempted to hold as much as he could to stave off the attack and to regain some energy and balance.

Garcia gloats about win over Salka

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Garcia Salka Fight Night-0010(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok / SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: It was clear going into WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia’s fight last Saturday night that he had a tremendous mismatch on his hands with little unranked lightweight Rod Salka (19-4, 3 KOs), but Garcia still couldn’t resist gloating about the victory after having beaten the over-matched fighter in the 2nd round at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Garcia hurt Salka with a right hand early in the 2nd round after having pounded him at will in the 1st. Garcia then dropped Salka hard with a fight hand. He later in the same round knocked him out cold with a left hook to the head. Salka’s trainer was trying to get the referee’s attention to have the fight stopped moments before Garcia nailed Salka with the huge left hook knockout blow to the head, but the referee didn’t see him.

Danny Garcia: I’m all about fighting the best fighters

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Garcia Salka Fight Night-0008(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok / SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) rebounded tonight from his gift decision over Mauricio Herrera in his last fight by stopping little known lightweight Rod Salka (19-4, 3 KOs) in a 2nd round TKO tonight.

Garcia was like a standup comic after the fight when being interviewed by Jim Gray. Garcia wasn’t trying to be funny but he was nonetheless when he said “I’m all about fighting the best fighters. I leave that up to Al Haymon, but if (Lamont Peterson) wants it he can get it too.”