San Juan, P.R. – Juan Manuel López (31-1 y 28 KO’s) has a long road ahead mirziamov.ru of him. His loss to Orlando “Siri” Salido (37-11-2, 25 KOs) for the WBO Featherweight Title will be a blemish hard, if even possible, to overcome on a possible road to true boxing stardom. Unlike many of his Puerto Rican predecessors, JuanMa’s first loss came too early and against the wrong opponent.
Without resting merit to Salido’s career, when he beat López last year he was coming off a unanimous decision loss to former featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa which put the eleventh loss in Orlando’s record. With five of those losses being stoppages, and except for his losses to Juan Manuel Márquez and Cristobal Cruz, the rest being against unheralded opponents, Salido was rightfully a prohibitive underdog going into the fight. But there is more to boxing than simple records.
Against Cruz, it was a close fight. Versus reported Salido landing more punches than Cruz and at a better connect percentage. It must be said again, it was a close fight. Against Márquez, though not as close, Salido was there for the whole twelve rounds against a boxer who would go up in weight and knockout bigger opponents among which were Juan Díaz, Joel Casamayor and Michael Katsidis.
In addition, we had seen López in a life and death struggle against journeyman Rogers Mtagwa, a boxer who possessed a similar style to Salido if not as strong as the Mexican. There was reason to believe the constant aggression Salido would try to force on JuanMa could present problems for the young champion. And it did.
The former southpaw champion won the first rounds of the fight but was never able to control the pace. It was Salido forcing the action and even when he lost rounds he was forcing the Puerto Rican to fight on his terms. On top of that, López seemed unable to get rid of Salido’s right hand throughout the whole fight. The end came when referee Roberto Ramírez Jr. stopped the action in the eight round after JuanMa had gone down in the fifth. Still, the scorecards were even at the moment.
It was the Mexican’s heart and resilience that won him the fight along with his right hand. López did land good shots but was unable to deter the challenger. For a puncher like JuanMa, landing good punches and not seeing the affect you expect can be devastating. For a brawler like Salido, assimilating those punches will usually have the opposite effect. After a few rounds, the challenger knew it was just a matter of time and pressure.
There is no reason to believe Salido will bring anything new to the table this time around. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks and no reason to do it if his current bag is working. López, isn’t giving him any reason to do so either as he ate right hand after right hand in his last bout against Mike Oliver. True, he knocked out Oliver inside of two rounds, but “Machine Gun” had nothing in his arsenal that could really hurt the bigger, stronger ex-champ.
The upcoming rematch poses a big question for JuanMa. Should he try to outbox Salido round by round and aim for a decision or should he try to finish the fight as quickly as possible and not risk exhaustion coming into play? Interestingly enough both are feasible options.
There is no questioning his power (28 knockouts in 31 victories) but Salido, who was able to take quiet a few of it the first time around, was stopped several times early in his career. JuanMa also showed he can go long rounds at a strong pace against Gerry Peñalosa but that seems like a long time ago now. His technique being better than Salido’s, it is not completely unreasonable to think he could pull off a hard fought decision. Especially in Puerto Rico.
So it is reasonable to say that the outcome of the fight is mostly in López’s hands. It is certain though that he must bring his A game if he wants any chance at all of winning this fight. Conditioning, both mental an physical, will be a key aspect on Saturday. Regardless of which fight plan he chooses, a total commitment and excellent execution of it are going to be essential.
If he chooses to go for the early stoppage, he must go for it in a brutal fashion and end it during the first half of the fight. In doing so, he cannot let his opponent gain any sort of confidence be it by landing big shots early or by assimilating them. If he chooses to box he must avoid excessive punishment and use bodywork and uppercuts to soften and diminish his foe and avoid a late round scare.
JuanMa is slightly favored for most bookies but considering some of them had him a 10 to 1 favorite in the first fight it is my opinion they are not giving the Mexican warrior his due credit. True he didn’t look spectacular in his most recent outing against Weng Haya, but neither did JuanMa in his. They both won, showed their flaws and their strengths, and neither seemed to be a better or even different fighter than the first time they met. Salido was wild and aggressive while showing his heart and determination, and López was an offensive powerhouse who took as many right hands to the chin as his opponent had to offer.
I’m picking Salido to knock out López in the later rounds of what should be an interesting and action packed fight.
The under card includes Miguel Angel “Mikey” García (27-0, 23 KO’s) fighting Bernabe Concepcion (31-4-1, 17 KO’s) for the NABO and NABF featherweight titles. Also fighting will be former Puerto Rican amateur stars McJoe (9-0, 5 KO’s) and McWilliams (10-1, 9 KO’s)Arroyo, Jonathan “Bomba” González (8-0, 7 KOs) and Camilo Pérez (6-0, 4 KO’s). It is being presented by Top Rank and P.R. Best Boxing Promotions and transmitted by Showtime.
