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On Saturday, Juan Manuel Lopez or ‘Juanma’ will face off against challenger Orlando Salido in defence of his WBO Featherweight title. Juanma’s record stands at 30-0 with 27 KO’s, whilst Salido’s is 34-11-2 with 22 KO’s.
Obviously, on paper, Juanma will blow Salido away, but in reality, it will be a shock if that happens.
Salido is a very tough fighter, eight of those eleven losses happened between the ages of 15-21. He was still plying his trade, learning his craft. It is the same for many Mexican fighters, thrown in at the deep end early in their career.
Salido got his first shot at a world title in 2004, against a younger Juan Manuel Marquez, who at the time was 42-2-1. The IBF and WBA Featherweight titles were on the line. Marquez is a surgical operator, and he can punch.
The majority of the fight Salido was completely out boxed, but then Marquez is a master boxer. He got caught on the counter rushing in, but if there is something to be said for that performance its that Salido never looked like he was going to be stopped or in serious danger, and he continued to pressure Marquez until the final bell. By all accounts Salido lost a unanimous decision, but the heart was there.
Interestingly enough, a couple of fights later he faced a guy called Rogers Mtagwa. Now Mtagwa also fought Lopez at the end of 2009 and he gave Lopez a really hard night’s work, Lopez was almost out of it in the last couple of rounds.
Back in early 2006, Salido stopped Mtagwa in five.
That fight was a title shot eliminator, and so Salido went on to fight Robert Guerrero in a second attempt for the IBF featherweight title late in 2006.
Although originally Salido won, by a unanimous decision, the scores were later changed to a no contest as Salido reportedly tested positive for steroid use and was stripped off his title.
Salido continued to chip away at the division, and in 2008, he eventually earned himself a third shot at the vacant IBF featherweight title.
This time he faced off against Cristobal Cruz, who had a similar record of 36-11-1. In a close fought, drawn out battle Cruz came out the victor by decision, but again Salido gave a good account of himself.
And in doing so got yet another shot, in a rematch with Cruz.
This time however, he put a beating on Cruz, dropping the champion twice in the second and winning nearly every round on route to a unanimous decision, finally capturing the IBF crown.
The set up here is further down the road; nearly every boxing fan wants to see the mouth-watering clash between Juanma and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Salido has already fought Gamboa, who, like Juanma, is a superstar of the sport. His record is 20-0with 16 KO’s. These two tore it up, with Gamboa tasting the canvas in round eight, and Salido tasting it twice in the twelfth.
Gamboa walked away with the unanimous decision but Gamboa had finished off nearly everyone who was put in front of him at the time, but couldn’t finish Salido.
There is a certain class to Salido’s relentless pressure, it’s typically Mexican. In that, he will step in and often lead with the left hook or left uppercut, both to body or head. And he is tough, before the Gamboa fight, he hadn’t been put on the canvas since 2000.
Should Juanma win against Salido, which he should, then it sets up the perfect future fight against Gamboa. Salido will not be there just to make up the numbers though.
Don’t get me wrong, Juanma is a force to be reckoned with, a 90% KO ratio is not to be scoffed at. And the talent he has faced and subsequently brushed aside is very impressive. Juan Ponce De Leon, Cesar Figueroa, Sergio Medina, Gerry Penalosa, Steven Luevano, Bernabe Concepcion and Rafael Marquez. None of them went the distance with Juanma. That is quite a statement.
Salido is the type of fighter who is made for Juanma, in that he is always coming forward and Juanma loves to play counter puncher but also has no problem switching it up and playing the aggressor if needs be.
Juanma will be looking to impress here, he will want to go out and show the world that he can stop Salido as Gamboa failed to. I doubt it will be that easy for him but Juanma has surprised us all before, a few times.
Should it go to points, Juanma could have a hard night’s work in front of him, Salido really seems to push an opponent when they are top performers. However, Juanma will look to stop Salido and I think he does in the middle rounds setting up a huge fight with Gamboa in the summer.
