By Michael Collins: Juan Manuel Lopez (31-1, 28 KO’s) and WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (37-11-2, 25 KO’s) will go at it once again this time on March 10th at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Lopez is getting the benefit of being able to fight at home event though he’s no longer the champion and is merely just another one of Saildo’s challengers. Last April, Lopez was shockingly beaten by Salido in an 8th round TKO loss in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Lopez supposedly didn’t train hard enough for the fight and had personal issues that were weighing him down.
However, physically, he looked to be in great shape as always and just seemed to have met an opponent in 31-year-old Salido who could take his power shots and return punches of his own. What we discovered quickly was that Lopez couldn’t block a right hand to save his life and couldn’t take a punch. He was hurt in the 6th from a couple of big right hands from Salido, and in the 8th, Lopez was hurt again by several right hands from Salido.
Lopez was then backed into a corner and was getting thrashed by Salido at the time the referee stopped the fight at 1:30 of the round. It was kind of a silly stoppage because Lopez was still fighting back but he wasn’t going anywhere.
Salido would have badly hurt him in this round if the referee had let the fight continue. You could see how disoriented Lopez was after the fight. He looked dizzy. Lopez didn’t look good after taking some jarring right hands in the 6th, and although he fought all out in the 7th, Lopez continued to eat hard right hands from Salido.
Lopez no doubt will be in excellent shape for the rematch in March, but I don’t know that it will be enough. Salido can take his shots and seems to be Lopez proof in terms of being unaffected by his power. But Lopez will likely be bothered by Salido’s right hands to the head and his body attacks. Things will go badly for Lopez unless he can try and run for the first time in his career.