Orlando Salido to defend featherweight gold against Juan Manuel Lopez in 12-round bout – Boxing news
Orlando Salido, the current WBO featherweight champion, is scheduled to defend his title in a 12-round main event bout against Juan Manuel Lopez, the man from whom he took the title, and will constitute the sequel to the 2011 bout on March 10, 2012.
The ring for the epic bout will be stretched at Puerto Rico’s famous Coliseo Roberto Clemente Arena, situated in San Juan. Salido and Lopez know each other very well in fact Lopez is the one who needs to settle a score with Salido.
On April 26, 2011, Lopez was entering the ring to defend his WBO featherweight title for the third consecutive time against Salido. Juan had no idea that his overconfidence would cost him not only the bout but also the title.
The bout was won by Orlando via eighth round knockout and he became the new champion. Lopez since then, waited for the apropos moment to re-acquire what rightfully belongs to him. And now after the passage of 11 long months he has got the chance to tell
Orlando that he was mistaken about being the best.
During the pre-bout press conference, Lopez confidently said that he has prepared strenuously for the bout and this time he will not make any mistake. Juan, widely known as ‘Juanma’, has been in a total 32 bouts and came out victorious in 31. Orlando, on
the contrary, heavily overshadows Lopez by experience.
Salido has been in a total 51 bouts and emerged as a victor in 37. He has lost a whopping 11 bouts and also lacks decent knockout ability, the reasons why he does not have odds in his favour this time.
Juan commented that the first bout might have been a simple boxing match but this second skirmish is a ‘war’ to finally take what belongs to him. Lopez said, “This fight is going to be a war. Orlando, you had a good night last year – but I want my title
back. I let you wear the belt for 11 months but I’m bringing it back to where it belongs on Saturday.”
Orlando, in a cool manner replied, “Entering the first fight, I had some doubts but now I have beaten Juanma and I know I can beat him again. I am 1000 percent sure I can win. Even though I won last year, I still have something to prove. In the ring, we
have a score to settle.”
The bout is being considered an epic one and almost all the analysts are eye balling the second encounter between two of the best top ranked featherweights. If Lopez has seriously trained for the bout, Salido, widely known as the Siri, must have a good game
plan in his gloves otherwise he will definitely get pummelled by the angry Lopez.
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