By Kevin Chittenden: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-11-2, 27 KO’s) thinks unbeaten #1 WBO Mikey Garcia (30-0, 26 KO’s) has never been in with anyone like him before and that he’ll fold under the constant pressure from him when they meet up on January 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Salido, 32, believes Garcia will foolishly come straight at him trying to slug it out. However, Salido is prepared to chase Garcia around the ring if need be if he chooses to run all night long out of a need to try and survive.
Salido told RingTV.com “I think he’s [Garcia] going to be more aggressive than he has shown in the rest of his fights. But if he’s not, then I’m prepared to go after him by chasing him and pressuring until I cut him down.”
It’s hard to say what Mikey will do for this fight because his trainer will likely come up with a strategy that may involve Garcia doing both running and slugging. The problem Garcia has in this fight is his lack of preparation. He’s had so many soft fights against such poor opposition that he’s never really shown the ability to throw combinations the way Salido and other fighters do.
Garcia fights a lot like WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin with his over reliance on throwing single power shots to try and knock his opponents. It’s been working against the poor opposition he’s faced, but Garcia didn’t look good at all in his last fight against Jonathan Victor Barros until stopping him in the 8th. Garcia was getting hit a lot and he was answering back with single shots like in all of his fights.
Salido will be on top of the tall and slender Garcia all night, hitting him with shot after shot. If Garcia can’t hurt Salido with his single pot shots, it’s going to be bad for Garcia. I think he might get knocked out in this fight or at the minimum he’ll take an awful beating. He’s too stiff and robotic, and he’s never shown the ability to throw combinations. Salido will eat this guy up if he can’t land something big.