Nearly a year after their first encounter, former featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido will square off again in a highly anticipated rematch of their 2011 slugfest.
Salido, coming in as a heavy underdog against Lopez in their April 2011 fight, shocked the boxing world by dropping Juanma several times throughout the fight en route to a knockout victory in the 8th round. With the upset Salido effectively ruined Top Rank?s plan of matching its 2 brightest prospects in Juanma and Gamboa in a super fight long clamored by boxing pundits.
After Salido?s upset of Juanma both fighters opted to take on other opponents before meeting again, Salido being the busier of the two knocked out mandatory challenger Kenichi Yamaguchi in the 11th and stopped Wenga Haya in the 8th round of a slugfest that saw Salido down twice and in danger of blowing future showdown with Lopez.
Lopez, looking for a confidence building fight, squared off against light hitting Mike Oliver. While Oliver got in some shots in first round it wasn?t enough to discourage the surging Lopez who would go on and stop Oliver in the 2nd round.
The rematch will take place on March 10th in Lopez?s hometown of San Juan Puerto Rico.
