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Tonight in San Juan, Puerto Rico, former two weight World Champion and big hitting Puerto Rican icon Juan Manuel Lopez will be gunning for retribution against his conqueror, the current WBO Featherweight champion Orlando Salido at the Arena Roberto Clemente, which is to be almost certainly a pro-Lopez house.
The first bout, which was a fight of the year candidate in 2011, saw two time Featherweight champion Salido drop Lopez in the fifth, before he eventually stopped Lopez three rounds later in a contest where all three judges, Tom Miller, Lisa Giampa, and Jose Roberto Torres, had the fighters locked together at 66-66 apiece prior to the eighth round stoppage of Lopez, who was still on his feet when referee Roberto Ramirez Jnr called a halt to the action.
Tonight there will be another Ramirez in the ring, this time in the shape of Ramirez Snr who will referee in the fight.
Prior to the first fight, which occurred in April last year, reports had surfaced in Puerto Rico and within the boxing press that Lopez was about to divorce his then wife Barbara De Jesus. DeJesus, who was previously Lopez’s partner for seven years prior to their marriage and with whom he had five children, had split from Lopez for “undisclosed reasons”.
This could have been a factor as to why Lopez was not fully focussed in this fight, as he was regularly having to attend the legal proceedings during training. There had also been reports that Lopez came into camp weighing as high as 180lbs (12 stone 12lbs) and had to lose as much as 64lbs to make the 9stone featherweight limit.
Hopefully this time Lopez will be focussed with no marital and weight problems bothering him in his aim to regain his title and pursue bigger ambitions.
Since the Lopez fight, Salido has had two bouts, defending against Japanese featherweight Kenichi Yamaguchi stopping him in the 11th round and then was recently fighting a 10 round non title clash. That fight was against the Filippino Weng Haya in Salido’s native Mexico, in which Salido was dropped in rounds three and four respectively before getting back up onto his feet to stop Haya in the eighth round and spare himself from further embarrassment .
But this was a fight which would potentially give Lopez confidence knowing that Haya has been successful in dropping Salido twice in their fight before eventually getting stopped, which is a possible hint that veteran Salido is suffering the first signs of wear and tear.
However, six weeks ago reports had surfaced that Lopez himself has been rumoured to been dropped heavily in sparring against former victim Jonathan Oquendo in training for this forthcoming fight, which gives cause to concern that he could suffer yet another stoppage loss at the hands of Salido.
Come fight time in San Juan, it shall be a highly charged atmosphere in which the crowd is going to be overwhelmingly pro-Lopez.
Lopez, with his personal issues now fully addressed, weight issues also properly dealt with and his confidence in the ring restored to some extent following a two round demolition of American Mike Oliver, will be driven by a desire of retribution to regain his title which was lost to Salido and will be determined to right the stain that currently persists on his record and will, in this writer’s opinion, achieve it much to the delight of his fans.
