by Robert Earle Stanton
Author of "Selling the Pain"
For a guy that started in
1996 and lost his first fight to hold a record of 6-5-1 by 1998 to take a break
of around two years to go on and beat 44-3-1 Regilio Tuur to then beat 28-4-1
Alfred Kotey, getting up off the canvas to do so, it would seem he would get
his dream in a shot for the WBA/IBF featherweight titles in '04 yet lose a UD
to 42-2-1 Juan Manuel Marquez. That was not the end.
He would come off that
fight with a big win over Cesar Soto in '05 and in '06 he would win the IBF
featherweight title over 19-1-1 Robert Guerrero by UD yet test positive for
steroids and it would be turned into a NO CONTEST. In '08 he would get
another shot at the IBF title vs Cristobal Cruz and lose a Split Decision but
in 2010 in the rematch he dropped Cruz twice en route to a UD win for the IBF
title.
Now Salido was an IBF
Champ on a 20-2 winning streak and would get a chance to unify the IBF/WBA
titles vs 18-0 Champion Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Gambao was a future star
and this was a test for him. Salido, however, dropped him in round 8 and
Gamboa was also penalized two points yet Salido was down in the 12th and would
lose a UD. This turned into the opportunity he needed.
In 2011 Salido would face
another star like a Gamboa, getting a shot at the WBO featherweight title now
against 30-0 knockout artist Juan Manuel Lopez. Again, Salido was a test
for Lopez since Salido did well against Gamboa. What should have been a
showcase for Lopez was a close fight until Salido would be the first to not
only beat him, but shockingly stop him in the 8th, winning the title.
A rematch would be set, and as Lopez regrouped with a win Salido
knocked out two guys and in 2012 the now 31-1 Juan Manuel Lopez was doing what
he should have done the first time, by knocking Salido down in the 5th, however
Salido came back and even though Salido was down on two of the three scorecards
he dropped Lopez in the 10th and stopped him again. This would be the end
of Juan Manuel Lopez as we knew him.
Salido was now a major
player in 2013 and would defend his title vs 30-0 Mikey Garcia. Salido
was down in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th round but broke Mikey's nose and the fight
was stopped and Salido lost the title on a TD on points.
Nine months later
Salido would knock out 20-2-1 Orlando Cruz winning the WBO title again.
In 2014 Salido would be
another test for an outstanding amatuer - so outstanding in fact that Vasyl
Lomachenko wanted his first pro fight to be for a world title, yet since that
could not happen he won his first fight by an impressive knockout and then
would get a crack, at 1 win and 0 losses, versus WBO Champ Salido. Salido
was overweight and he lost the title on the scales, so the the title was only
up for Vasyl Lomachenko if he won, which now seemed even more likely.
Again, Salido would defy odds and win a UD giving Vasyl Lomachenko,
now a major player, his first and only defeat.
Even though Salido did
not hold the title it made a statement and gave him an an opportunity not to
just move up in weight but to fight for the WBO Jr lightweight title vs 53-4-1
Terdsak Kokietgym. This could have been Fight of the Year in 2014, yet
was overshadowed by HBO’s broadcast of Crawford knocking out Gamboa and
Showtime’s broadcast of Matthysse knocking out Molina Jr.
Salido and Kokietgym were
both down in the 1st round while Salido was down in the 2nd and then put
Kokietgym down in the 4th, and in the closing of the 6th round Kokietgym was
taking major punishment and with around 8 seconds left in the 6th the referee
stepped in as if to stop the fight - Salido was even celebrating victory yet
the ref waved off his call and they continued to finish the round going into
the 7th where where Salido dropped Kokietgym through the ropes yet Kokietgym
got up and looked like a beaten fighter, as Salido was all over him and going
into the 8th they stood toe to toe and Kokietgym was rocked a couple times.
The 9th and 10th they would continue to stand toe to toe with Salido
getting the better of the action. In the 11th Salido came right out after him
and after a big shot a three punch combo put Kokietgym flat on his back whereas
the referee did not even have to count to ten.
And Salido started a new
career at Jr Lightweight and is holding another new title
to add to his vast collection.
You name someone who has
fought JM Marquez, Robert Guerrero, Yuriorkis Gamboa, stopped an undefeated JM
Lopez and stopped him again in the rematch, Mikey Garcia, beat Vasyl Lomachenko
all at featherweight and just moved up to Jr Lightweight and won a title in an
over 18 year career. And that’s leaving a lot out.
This gives Salido, the 18
year veteran from Mexico, living out of Arizona, only 34 years old, his first
defense of the WBO Jr Lightweight title this coming Saturday Night, April 11th
vs 28-2-2 Roman Martinez. Martinez is no joke. He has been at
130 a lot longer.
Martinez is 32 and had a
career completely unlike Salido. He started in 2001 and by 2010 he was
the WBO Jr Lightweight Champion making the 3rd defense of his WBO Jr
lightweight title when he went to the UK to fight Ricky Burns, even though he
dropped Burns in the 1st he would ultimately lose a close UD and lose his
title. He would come back and win the vacant title from 27-1 Beltran Jr,
fight to a draw with 30-1 Juan Carlos Burgos and beat 23-0 Diego
Magdaleno. He was then 27-1-2 and ironically in 2013 fought for the
title Salido lost - vs Mikey Garcia. Even though Martinez dropped Garcia
in the 2nd round he got stopped for the first time. Martinez took off a
lot of time after that, almost a year and would end up fighting in December
2014 as he knocked out a 12 win, 9 loss Herbert Quartey easily, as he should
have.
So Saturday Night Orlando
Salido vs Roman Martinez for Salido’s WBO Jr Lightweight Strap as Roman
Martinez is ranked number 5 and Orlando Salido is ranked number 6 by Ring
Magazine.
