Orlando Salido Being Considered for Canelo-Chavez Co-Feature

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Orlando Salido might land a high-profile fight after all.

Vasyl Lomachenko is fighting Jason Sosa on April 8. And Francisco Vargas is recovering from a brutal beating that eliminated the possibility of a rematch with Salido for the foreseeable future.

But according to Sean Gibbons, Salido’s manager, Salido is in contention to fill the co-feature slot on the Canelo Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pay-per-view undercard. Gibbons didn’t divulge opponents under consideration Tuesday, but said Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez is expected to let him know later this week if Salido will be added to HBO Pay-Per-View’s four-fight telecast May 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Salido will fight anybody,” Gibbons said before a press conference at the Hard Rock Café in Manhattan to promote the Alvarez-Chavez fight. “And whoever he fights, you know it’ll be a war.”

Mexico’s Salido typically produces fan-friendly action fights and would be a sensible addition to an undercard that’ll take place on Cinco de Mayo weekend.

Salido considered a rematch with Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs), the WBO super featherweight champion, but wanted more money than the Ukrainian southpaw’s promoter, Top Rank Inc., was willing to offer. Lomachenko lost his second professional fight to Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs, 1 NC) by split decision in March 2014, and the two-time Olympic gold medalist repeatedly has said he wants to fight the rugged veteran again.

The 36-year-old Salido also was interested in facing Vargas in a rematch later this year. Their memorable brawl June 4 in Carson, California, which resulted in a draw, was named “Fight of the Year” for 2016 by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Salido sat ringside last month, though, and watched fellow Mexican Miguel Berchelt ruin his potential rematch against Vargas. Berchelt (31-1, 28 KOs) dominated and knocked out a battered, bloodied Vargas (23-1-2, 17 KOs) in the 11th round of their January 28 bout in Indio, California, to take Vargas’ WBC world super featherweight title.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.