(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok/SHOWTIME) By Michael Collins: Former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez’s career is now in shambles after losing by a 10th round TKO defeat to WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (38-11-2, 26 KO’s) on Saturday night in their rematch at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Salido, 31, knocked a tired and hurt Lopez down in the 10th round with an uppercut to the head.
Salido was pressuring Lopez from the opening round nailing him with jabs while stocking him around the ring. Lopez looked to be making a poor attempt at boxing Salido instead of slugging it out with him. Lopez didn’t look at all natural or comfortable with the new style, and it clearly didn’t have much effect at stopping Salido from making contact.
In the second round, Salido hurt Lopez with a big left hook to the head that had Lopez backing up, clearly hurt. Salido followed it up with another big right hand that connected. Lopez looking to be fighting for his life, landing a hard combination before the round ended. It looked as if Salido had already found the same groove he was in the last time he whipped Lopez last April, except it was even easier this time because Lopez looked gun-shy.
Salido caught Lopez with a big right hand early in the 3rd round. Lopez didn’t look good in taking the shot. Lopez was then later hit by a big left-fight combination followed by some uppercuts and hooks to the head while Lopez was cringing on the ropes. Salido suffered a cut over his left eye during the round, but other than that he totally dominated. Lopez looked like he was tying to imitate Floyd Mayweather Jr. with his defense by holding his guard low but it wasn’t working at all for him.
Lopez fought reasonably well in the 4th, throwing combinations and seeming to hurt Salido just a little at point in the round. However, Salido kept on nailing Lopez and had a lot more power on his shots in comparison. Lopez looked to be in good shape but his power was gone. He may have been weight-drained or over-trained because he clearly was weaker than he used to be and a slower.
In the 5th, Lopez was under steady fire and forced to back up constantly to avoid the pressure from Salido. Lopez was hurt by a big left hook from Salido and ran away. However, Salido walked straight into a big right hook from Lopez and was knocked down. Lopez wasn’t able to do anything after Salido got back to his feet. Things were looking kind of bad for Salido as the rounded.
Salido came back in the 6th round to hurt Lopez with a big right hand. It was made possible by Lopez being much more eager to slug with Salido after hurting him in the previous round. Salido followed the right hand up with a big left followed by a right that Lopez took but he didn’t look good. Salido continued to completely batter Lopez for the remainder of the one-sided round.
Salido wobbled Lopez in the 7th with a powerful left hook, but Lopez came back with a nice jab to the head that was perfectly timed. Salido fired back but Lopez came back with some hard shots. Salido, however, kept coming on and nailing Lopez with shot after shot to win the round.
In the 8th and 9th round, Lopez continued to really take a pounding by Salido, getting hit with a lot of hard uppercuts. The 9th was close with both fighters getting hit hard but Salido still looked to be the stronger guy here. You could see that Lopez wasn’t going to last much longer.
In the 10th, Salido came out firing right hands and jabs. Salido nailed Lopez with a hard right uppercut that put him down. Lopez tried to get up but was too badly hurt to continue.
That’s it for Lopez. I think this fight really hurts his career in a big way. I can’t see him coming back from this even against other fighters not named Salido.
In other fights on the card:
Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia TKO 7 Bernabe Concepcion
José “Chelo” González TKO 8 Hevinson Herrera
McWilliams Arroyo UD 10 Luis Maldonado
McJoe Arroyo UD 6 Shawn Nichol
Camilo Pérez UD 6 Charlie Serrano
Gamalier Rodríguez UD 8 Allan Tanada