Orlando Salido might have offered a little prayer to St. Anthony last night in Tijuana between the second and third rounds of his brutal give-and-take-and-give-and-take-a-little-more affair against veteran Thai southpaw Terdsak Kokietgym. For the second time in less than six minutes, Salido was on the canvas, with a bleak look on his face, but, somehow, he went on to recover from three knockdowns to outlast Kokietgym, scoring a savage TKO in the 11th round of a thriller aired on beIN Sports in the United States. With the dramatic win, Salido picked up an interminable TROTLC junior lightweight title and left thousands at the Auditorio Municipal Fausto Guti?rrez Moreno with quickened pulses.
South of the border, hard cases like Salido, Edgar Sosa, Jhonny Gonzalez, and Giovanni Segura draw consistently because Mexican fans do not confuse hip-hop gibberish and ridiculous Tweets with a prizefighter. Unfortunately, networks in America are more interested in creative billing and poisonalities than they are in competitive fights these days. Think of the shrill spills/chills/ thrills shilling of Mauro Renallo, the perpetual ?All Access? hype, and Max Kellerman comparing virtually every fighter with the HBO imprimatur to Pernell Whitaker or Sugar Ray Leonard. Real pros, it seems, are not of much interest unless someone like Rod Salka or Blake Caparello is in the opposite corner. While corporate execs double as proactive semioticians (controlling signs and images as often as possible), leathery pros like Salido wind up on beIN Sports putting action in an action sport as often as possible. Indeed, Salido did not get an RSVP from HBO after out-outpointing Vasyl Lomachenko last March. Instead, he drew a raucous crowd down in Tijuana and staged another bloodcurdling show.
Now 33, Salido remains the ultimate cooler, as well as a myth-buster, putting the hurt on any number of false narratives over the years. In 2011, ?Siri? interrupted the Juan Manuel Lopez P-4-P yarn, halted the identity politics fairy tale of Orlando Cruz (as well as putting an end, thankfully, to the human-interest treacle hammered out on smartphones by the Kings of Blogese) and kept Vasyl Lomachenko from achieving ?history? on HBO. If there is any hokum in the house favorite, Salido is sure to expose it.
Against Kokietgym, Salido, now as rusty and rickety as a 19th-century weathervane, merely had to beat a middling pro with some pop in his left hand. But Salido was in trouble before the opening bell ceased echoing.
Looking to win his first major gewgaw after three previous losses, Kokietgym, 53-5-1 (33), decided early that countering the reckless Salido with a single shot seemed like a perfect strategy. Barely a minute into the first round, Kokietgym, with Salido working off the ropes, landed a short straight left that left Salido on the canvas. But Kokietgym, Bangkok, Thailand, failed to display much of a finishing touch the entire night and his followup was too cautious. When Salido dropped him with a blow that landed well below the belt a minute later, Kokietgym, 130, lost his momentum entirely. Andre Breton may have died nearly fifty years ago, but a special brand of sporting surrealism can still be found in boxing. In this case it was the laughable Eddie Claudio, who put on a special clinic of buffoonery for all of Baja California to see. Not only did Claudio call the foul a knockdown, but he also, inexplicably, began tolling the count in Spanish. (Later, Claudio would hear phantom bells ringing and intervene to end the sixth round while Salido was in the midst of rallying.)
In the second round, Kokietgym came out stalking and stunned Salido, 130, early with hard lefts. But every time Salido got Kokietgym in striking distance, he would attack to the body with both hands. Only a few seconds before the bell rang to end the round, however, Kokietgym landed an arcing right that moved Salido into position for another straight left that dropped him in a corner on the seat of his pants. For an instant, Salido, a pro since he was 15 years old, looked dispirited. Even so, Salido, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, trudged back to his corner for a 60-second respite from pain.
A minute of rest was barely enough. Salido was immediately wobbled in the third, but he began to bang away at Kokietgym with every punch in his arsenal, particularly to the ribs. His bodywork paid off in the fourth when a long-range right to the stomach sent skidding to the canvas. A weary Kokietgym survived the round and landed his share of blows, but Salido seemed on his way to taking control. Sensing an improbable victory, Salido pressed the attack early in the fifth. He battered Kokietgym against the ropes, whipsawing to the body and coming over the top with rights, but Kokietgym struck with yet another counter left and?just like that?Salido was taking another count. A lack of killer instinct cost Kokietgym once more, as he allowed the cagey Salido not only to recuperate but to rally over the succeeding rounds.
If Salido treasures anything, it would have to be a stationary target without infighting skills, and Kokietgym played the role to perfection. On the inside, Salido systematically dismantled Kokietgym, alternating shots from body to head and back again. Although Kokietgym connected with the occasional uppercut?especially late?he was little more than a rag doll in the trenches. Salido scored another knockdown when he hammered a sagging Kokietgym against the ropes and onto his knees in the seventh round. By that point, Kokietgym was fueled only by heart and determination. He took serious punishment in the late rounds before Salido finally dropped the hammer early in the 11th. A left hook froze Kokietgym momentarily, and Salido ripped a roundhouse right that rendered Kokietgym defenseless against a hollow-point left uppercut. Kokietgym collapsed in ring center, a man whose body had finally given way to a dark art and its even darker effects.
Despite a chin as fragile as rice paper, Salido, whose record improves to 42-12-2 with 29 knockouts, remains one of the brassiest fighters in boxing, and his breathtaking win last night will likely get him another major payday in 2015. But he has been floored at least a dozen times over his last ten fights, and, sooner or later, Salido will see the black lights in the ring. If not, then consider it another miracle, of sorts.
