SALIDO DOES IT AGAIN!
This past Saturday night in Puerto Rico, Mexican slugger Orlando Salido and Puerto Rican slugger Juan Manuel Lopez staged a classic barroom brawl for the ages. Their roles were switched from their first encounter last April, as Salido entered the ring this time as the defending WBO featherweight world champion. In their original meeting, also in Puerto Rico, Salido entered the squared circle as the challenger and a prohibitive underdog given very little if any chance of defeating the supposedly unbeatable, dynamite-laden fists of Juanma.
By scoring a TKO victory over Juanma in the 8th round of their initial encounter, Salido proved that he is an elite fighter and the best featherweight boxer in the world today. By turning the trick again in the rematch with a stunning 10th round kayo of Lopez, in front of a partisan Lopez crowd, Salido emphatically put the boxing world on notice that his original 8th round kayo victory over Juanma in their first slugfest was in no way a fluke. Salido is for real and real fight fans have taken him to their hearts for his relentless warrior nature. Salido fights as if it was his last day on earth.
In Puerto Rico, this second time around, Salido was an absolute force of nature, always coming forward winging shots, looking to take out Juanma with every punch he threw. At no time in either fight did Salido seem the least bit disturbed by Juanma’s legendary heavy hands. Juanma deliberately elbowed Salido this time around late in the fight and Salido nor his corner complained about the flagrant foul. They took it for what it was, the last desperate attempt of a losing fighter trying to regain his former glory.
Salido fought like a pair of well-oiled pistons, continually chugging forward, landing thudding and concussive shots on Juanma seemingly at will. Salido truly is the “Energizer” boxer who only knows one speed – fast forward. Salido knows only one way to fight, which is to throw howizter-powered hooks to the body and head until whoever is in front of him either falls to the canvas or the referee steps in to stop the fight.
For all those people watching Salido-Juanma II on Saturday night, it appeared that Juanma had not yet fully recovered from the first brutal knockout loss he had suffered at the relentless hands of Salido last April. Juanma never seemed to have his legs under him in this fight to any sufficient degree. He always looked to be one good shot away from being dropped. The long awaited rematch between Juanma and Salido was supposed to be a chance for Juan Manuel Lopez to regain his lost laurels, the WBO featherweight world title. Most boxing experts who viewed the fight did not score a single round for Juanma, including the fifth where he dropped Salido briefly with a check left hook.
It now remains to be seen if Juanma can even regain his original boxing form, which made him the terror of the featherweight division. Maybe Juanma is finished. He sure looked like it this past Saturday night. In boxing, it can happen that quickly. Careers and lives can end on a single punch. Juanma was wobbled dozens of times during the fight and looked to be in danger of going down every time Salido tagged him with a decent shot.
Salido deserves much credit for agreeing to the rematch in Juanma’s backyard of Puerto Rico. Salido took the crowd right out of the fight in the very first round by immediately jumping on Lopez at the opening bell and rocking him several times in the first stanza.
Surprisingly, Lopez showed a much-improved chin in his ability to absorb Salido’s bombs. However, just like their first tussle, Lopez was unable to duck slip or slide Salido’s power punches, which would have been much preferable to just shaking them off. It was only a matter of time before this flaw in Juanma’s mettle would catch up with him and spell goodnight.
The other big surprise for the evening was Juanma’s decision to open the fight utilizing his rarely seen boxing abilities. Whereas before Juanma would always resort to trading with his foe whenever he was tagged with a good shot, he now danced away from Salido every time the champ rocked him with a power punch. Yes this strategy gave Juanma more time and distance to recover but it also put him out of counterpunching range too.
The first 8 rounds fell into a familiar pattern with Salido pressing the action, landing powerful body shots on the challenger before bringing his attack upstairs to land damaging punches flush on Juanma’s chin many times. Juanma would briefly try to counter and then flit away whenever Salido got his attention with some bone-rattling power punches. Salido showed a lot of head movement when coming forward, giving Juanma an elusive and thoroughly frustrating target to reach for in each round.
Salido also added another weapon to his arsenal, a looping left hook, which Juanma seemed unable to defend against or even see coming. Salido’s left hook is sneaky because he wings it from the outside, not leaving Juanma any chance to see it until it has landed. Juanma spent much of the night trapped against the ropes, which provided the champ with ample opportunites to use his new found left hook to great effect.
It was fervently hoped in Puerto Rico that Lopez would thrill the crowd and bring them to their feet, as he had done so many times before, by scoring a brutal knockout of Salido to regain his much beloved WBO featherweight crown. Unfortunately for Puerto Rican fans, it was simply not to be.
Salido applied tremendous pressure right from the get-go, expertly cutting off the ring in each round, forcing Juanma to fight a war of attrition in close, which is not a style that works well against Salido. Juanma has lethal punching power in both hands, but he needs sufficient room to let his hands go. Salido continually cut off the ring and by crowding Juanma, never allowed him enough space to get any leverage on his power shots. Yes, Lopez did box a lot more than he did in their first bout, just as he said he would. However, his decision to box more than slug had virtually no effect on Salido in any round of their rematch.
It is hard to criticize Lopez for his new game plan during the rematch. In their original encounter, Lopez relied on his phenomenal punching power to do the trick, as it had done so many times before, by trying to decapitate Salido with each shot he threw. He spent that whole first fight head hunting to no avail.
Sure Juanma rang Salido’s bell a couple of times in their first spectacular battle but the hard charging Mexican with the chin of granite and the heart of a lion, was not in any way deterred, dropping Juanma with a vicious left hook in the fifth round and then overwhelming him to knock him out in the 8th round.
Juanma knew he needed another strategy than just standing toe-to-toe and trading bombs if he were to regain his title from Salido. Lopez ran into the classic slugger’s worst nightmare, which is, what happens when you hit your foe with your hardest knockout punches and nothing happens? Salido took all of Lopez’s crunching shots and still fired back relentlessly with quicker and much more damaging punches.
Lopez said he would revert to boxing technically the second time around and he remained true to his word. He boxed Salido from a distance in an attempt to avoid getting caught with Salido’s crushing counter shots, which cost him his title the first time around. Lopez wanted to show his hometown fans that his 8th round knockout loss to Salido last year was nothing more than a fluke.
Well, Salido showed Mexican fight fans along with Juanma’s rabid hometown fans that his first win over Juanma was definitely not a fluke. Salido proved even more superior to Juanma in this rematch, issuing the former champ a much more emphatic beat down than he had given him in their original bout.
Although Salido was defending his WBO featherweight world title, there was something much more valuable and prestigious at stake when these two great fighters entered the ring, namely ownership of the bragging rights between Puerto Rico and Mexico and which country has superior fighters and world champions. This is a boxing rivalry that has been in existence for more than 100 years. Mexico won this chapter of their endless, ongoing war for fistic supremacy.
In retrospect, the signs of Juanma’s apparent sudden demise were there all along but most fight fans and media tended to overlook the ever widening cracks in Juanma’s supposed wall of invincibility. In fact, the first signs that Juanma may not be as dominant as first thought, appeared in his brutal 12 round super bantamweight title fight in 2009 with Rogers Mtagwa. Juanma won a disputed unanimous decision but was essentially out on his feet at the finish line.
Salido knew that coming into the rematch he would absolutely have to knock out Juanma to retain his crown. He had no illusions about receiving a decision in his favor in his opponent’s hometown.
The Orlando Salido that has now convincingly knocked out Juan Manuel Lopez in two consecutive fights almost one year apart, is certainly not the same boxer we have been watching ply his trade all over the world, for the last ten years. What happened to Salido in the course of the last several years to turn him from a top flight pro boxer into an elite and outstanding world champion?
I think the answer may lie farther back, even before he engaged Juanma in battle. It was his war with Yuriorkis Gamboa that infused Salido with the confidence that he could be the best featherweight in the world. He needed to do two different things to accomplish that goal. He had to increase his stamina to the point where he cold fight toe-to-toe for 12 full rounds without a break and he had to start knocking all of his opponents out and never again rely on the judges for a decision in his favor.
In his match with Gamboa, aka the Guantanamo Cyclone, Salido gave perhaps the best performance of his career up to that point and yet, still lost. It enraged him inside. This was a different kind of rage. He was angry with himself for leaving the decision in the hands of the judges. He vowed to never let that happen again. So far, he has kept that promise to himself.
It’s a good thing too that he no longer relies on the judges. In their rematch, Showtime’s unofficial scorer Chuck Giampa scored the fight, including what turned out to be the 10th and final round for Salido by a wide margin over Juanma, as did all of the ringside observers. However, two of the three official judges had Juanma unbelievably ahead. Juanma lost every round by a wide margin, including the 5th round, where he scored a flash knockdown of Salido with a check left hook.
The disgusting fact that two of the three judges assigned to the fight had Juanma ahead is exactly what drives Salido to new heights in his chosen sport.
Salido knows from many unfortunate past experiences that such disgraceful and criminally inaccurate scoring is now the norm in professional boxing. That is why so many people watch Salido fight and then are stunned to learn that he has 11 losses on his ledger. How can a fighter this talented have that many losses? Easy. He was the victim of home cooking many times throughout his career. In his case, it has only made him a tougher, meaner and more successful prizefighter.
After his original victory over Juanma last April 16th in Puerto Rico, Salido had two more fights to finish out the year. He knocked out Kenichi Yamaguchi by 11th round kayo and then he iced Weng Haya in 8 rounds. In other words, Salido continued to fight and to improve rather than relax and enjoy his spoils. He has trained relentlessly for the past year and a half and his conditioning is remarkable. After his 10th round stoppage of Juanma, Salido told Jim Grey that he still had at least another 3 to 5 rounds left in his tank. His second victory over Juanma was a vicious and grueling fight, much more so than their first encounter. The ninth round was the best round of the year so far and was reminiscent of the 10th round of the May, 2005 all out war between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
During the sensational and hectic 9th round, both Salido and Juanma took turns using each other’s head for batting practice. Both men were landing concussive bombs bringing the crowd to its feet screaming all over the world. Both men were out on their feet numerous times in that sizzling 9th round, but somehow fought their way back into the fight.
At the conclusion of that epic round, everyone including the fighters, the fans and the broadcasters were absolutely breathless from watching three full minutes of toe-to-toe slugging action without even a single pause or clinch by either fighter. How much more could either man possibly have left to give? The answer to that question would be answered very soon.
As it turned out, the blistering 9th round was Juanma’s last stand of the fight. He had virtually nothing left within him to give. Salido came out for the tenth and what turned out to be final round frisky, eager for action and hungry for battle. He caught Juanma with a crushing right hook, that was the beginning of the end, and then threw 5 more punishing headshots in quick succession, much like a machine gun firing off a round. Juanma took every blow on his chin, finally falling violently to the canvas, almost in slow motion, with his head thudding loudly off of the mat.
Rather than take a count to clear his obviously concussed head Juanma rose immediately and then fell back into the ropes, staggering several times before referee Roberto Ramirez did the right thing and stopped the fight. Ramirez saved Juanma’s life by ending the fight. It is truly unfortunate that Juanma was too concussed to realize that at the time. Ironically Juanma displayed more heart and courage in defeat than he had ever shown before in any of his previously impressive victories. Salido’s corner, when watching the replay of the knockout, took their hats off to Juanma. He had fought his heart out. He went out on his shield, the way a true professional boxer is supposed to.
Salido said that Juanma was a very tough fighter with very heavy hands and a lot of power. Unbelievably, Salido remarked that he still had more rounds left in the tank just in case Juanma survived the 10th round. Not even Superman could have survived that blazing 9th round melee as well as the 10th round. Salido still wanted to go on! Salido reached his physical zenith in this fight at a time when most fighters would be struggling just to last the rounds. Salido is a champion for the ages!
The question everyone was wondering in both the ninth and tenth rounds was, “What on earth is holding Juanma up?” At that point, it was nothing more than heart, courage and his grim determination to see this war through to its bitter end. Ultimately it proved to be not enough to surmount Salido’s ironclad desire for victory. Why Juanma felt obliged to besmirch his phenomenal ring efforts by needlessly accusing the referee of stopping the fight to pay off his gambling debts is anyone’s guess. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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