Orlando Salido Hopes Vasyl Lomachenko Rematch Gets Finalized

By Miguel Rivera

Former world champion Orlando Salido was hoping to get the second opportunity to face WBC super featherweight king Francisco Vargas, but instead his team is putting the finishing touches on an HBO televised rematch with Ukrainian star Vasyl Lomachenko, who holds the WBO super featherweight world title.

According to Lomachenko, a deal is very close for March 25th. Lomachenko, a gold medalist at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, is already a two-division world champion with just eight fights (7-1, 5 KOs) under his belt. But, Lomachenko only defeat as a professional was given to him at the hands of Salido in 2014.

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After defending the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title for the first time on November 26 with a dominating stoppage of Nicholas Walters, Lomachenko is ready to get revenge for his only career defeat – but Salido plans to take him down for a second time.

“We are negotiating and we are waiting to fight Lomachenko in March. We hope they reach a good conclusion and we’ll go forward,” said Salido. Almost three years have passed since that fight and Salido recognizes that there is greater danger involved in the second fight, because – “[Lomachenko] is more alive, more awake, has more qualities, he’s more settled in professional boxing.

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I know this fight is going to be good.” On the other hand, Salido confirmed that he is fully recovered and a with medical discharge for a back injury that prevented him from fighting Japan’s Takashi Miura on December 17. Regarding Vargas, who fought Salido to a draw on June 4, he returns to the ring next month against Miguel “Alacrán” Berchelt. In the opinion of Salido, Vargas was looking for an easier fight.

“We were looking for a rematch, but they did not come with anything. They did not want to face me, they wanted an easier fight. Unfortunately I had a fight with Miura and I could not fight against him. Now I’ll wait for the result in January and hopefully everything goes well for a rematch [with Lomachenko],” Salido said.

http://www.boxingscene.com/orlando-salido-hopes-vasyl-lomachenko-rematch-gets-finalized–112094