By Keith Idec
Vasyl Lomachenko was rooting for Orlando Salido to defeat Francisco Vargas on Saturday night in Carson, California.
The WBO featherweight champion emphasized he wants another shot at Salido, though there’s much more demand for a Salido-Vargas rematch in the aftermath of their fantastic fight at StubHub Center. Ukraine’s Lomachenko faced an extremely experienced Salido in just his second professional fight, but the two-time Olympic gold medalist thinks Salido’s weight advantage played a much larger role in the outcome of their fight two years ago than the rugged Mexican’s experience.
“When he came in the ring and he took off his t-shirt, I saw a completely different person in front of me than the person I saw at the weigh-in,” Lomachenko recalled through a translator during a recent conference call. “It was a completely different person in front of me. Did I feel his weight in the ring? Yes, I did feel his weight when I was fighting him. But I cannot blame the weight or anything. I was prepared for him to come heavier in the ring. But I just fought. I did what I had to do.”
Salido weighed in at 128¼ pounds for their 126-pound title fight in March 2014. He surrendered his WBO featherweight championship at the scale, a day before scoring a split-decision win against Lomachenko in San Antonio.
Judge Levi Martinez scored Lomachenko a 115-113 winner over Salido. The two other judges – Jack Reiss (116-112) and Oren Shellenberger (115-113) – scored the 12-round fight for Salido.
Lomachenko won the then-vacant title 3½ months later, when he defeated Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) by majority decision at StubHub Center.
Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) suggested Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs, 1 NC) weighed as much as 147 pounds once the bell rang to start their fight. The highly skilled southpaw has moved up to 130 pounds for his fight Saturday night against Puerto Rico’s Rocky Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs), the WBO world super featherweight champion.
If Lomanchenko beats Martinez, he’ll have 10 days to decide whether he’ll keep the WBO’s 126-pound title or its 130-pound crown. If the heavily favored Lomachenko loses their HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event in The Theater at Madison Square Garden, he’ll retain the WBO featherweight title.
“I didn’t have any problems [making] 126 pounds,” Lomachenko said. “Of course, it wasn’t easy. But never was it a critical condition when I had to make my weight. As far as moving to 130 pounds, this a more natural weight for me. And another reason why I moved [up], I was very tired of waiting to get any other champions in the division to fight me. Moving to 130 pounds, it might give me more ability to fight the best fighters in the division, and most likely the champions in the division. That was [the basis of] my decision to move to 130 pounds.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
