Broken orbital bone for Salido
By Dan Rafael ESPN.com
Former featherweight titlist Orlando Salido, who got knocked down four times and lost his belt via eighth-round technical decision to Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia on Saturday night in New York, suffered a broken right orbital bone, manager Sean Gibbons told ESPN.com.
Salido’s right eye was badly bruised and swollen by the time the fight was stopped, after an accidental head-butt from Salido badly broke Garcia’s nose. Garcia won a wide decision, 79-70, 79-69, 79-69.
After the fight, Salido went for an exam at a Manhattan hospital, where the injury was diagnosed.
“It’s very possible that it was broken right off the bat in the first round,” Gibbons said.
Garcia dropped Salido twice in the first round, once in the third and again in the fourth round.
“Salido wasn’t ready for that first shot so it took him a while to get adjusted after that and we think he was fighting with the broken bone from the first round,” Gibbons said. “He had a CT scan at the hospital and everything was OK, thankfully, other than that (broken bone). We were at the hospital until 5 in the morning and then Orlando was on a flight back to Mexico at 9 a.m.”
He said Salido (39-12-2, 27 KOs), 32, was disappointed that the fight ended so abruptly, just as Salido, although way behind on the scorecards, was beginning to come on.
“We didn’t have closure in the fight,” Gibbons said. “Orlando said he would have rather gotten knocked out than have it end like that. He believes he was coming on and getting ready to do something. The Mikey that fought those first six rounds was tough. But the Mikey who fought the seventh and eighth rounds was not the same Mikey. Orlando was starting to get to him and who knows what would have happened? There was still a lot of fight left when it got stopped.”
Gibbons said the injury won’t keep Salido out for too long and no surgery is needed.
The plan is for Salido to heal up and then return for a non-title junior lightweight bout in Mexico in May and before looking for another world title opportunity.
“He has great support from the government in (the Mexican state of) Sonora, where we’ll do a fight in May at 130 pounds,” Gibbons said. “And if (junior lightweight titlist) Rocky Martinez is still holding onto his belt, we’d love to fight Rocky Martinez.”
Martinez retained his title for the first time via disputed split decision against Juan Carlos Burgos on the Garcia-Salido undercard.
“If we can’t get Martinez, making the weight for featherweight is no problem for Orlando. It’s not an issue, so we don’t rule out something at featherweight again,” Gibbons said.
He said they would be interested in meeting the winner of the March 1 ESPN2 bout between featherweight titlist Billy Dib and mandatory challenger Luis Franco.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/8872714/orlando-salido-suffered-broken-orbital-bone-defeat