Lopez vs. Salido: A fight few boxing fans want to see

By Boxing News - 04/06/2011 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Rather taking on Yuriorkis Gamboa, WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (30-0, 27 KO’s) will be facing Gamboa’s leftovers in Orlando Salido (34-11-2, 22 KOs) on April 16th at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

It’s a confusing match-up, because the 30-year-old Salido has been beaten numerous times during his 15-year pro career and is coming off a fairly lopsided 12 round decision loss to Gamboa last September. It’s never a good idea to fight someone that’s coming off a loss.

Salido is being given back to back title shots even though he was just beaten. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that, but it does seem like a good way of turning off boxing fans if that’s what the point of this is. Obviously, Lopez’s promoter, who also promotes Gamboa, wants to show boxing fans the contrast of how his two fighters deal with the same opponent in Salido.

That would be something I could stomach if both Gamboa and Lopez were champions and were just starting their careers. However, Lopez and Gamboa are champions now, and it seems silly for Lopez to be fighting a guy that was just soundly beaten by Gamboa. Surely, someone else from the featherweight pack could have been picked out for Lopez instead of Salido.

Come on, why give a guy a fight that was just beaten badly? I’d rather see Lopez facing someone like Mikey Garcia than to see him getting Gamboa’s sloppy seconds. If Bob Arum, their promoter, isn’t interested in putting them together for a fight, then he could at least pick out some new blood for Lopez to beat instead of a retread like Salido.

As far as who is going to win the Salido-Lopez fight, it’s pretty clear that Lopez will. Look for an easy lopsided 12 round decision for Lopez.



Comments are closed.