Orlando Salido, Mickey Roman to headline HBO on Dec. 9 vs. Lomachenko-Rigondeaux
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Orlando Salido won’t be rematching Vasyl Lomachenko, but he will be opposing him in some fashion.
The Mexican brawler will face Mickey Roman on HBO December 9 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and the junior lightweight fight will go head-to-head with the highly anticipated fight between Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux on ESPN. Tevin Farmer will meet Kenichi Ogawa for the vacant IBF junior lightweight in the co-feature.
Salido, THE RING’s No. 3 junior lightweight, was slated to challenge Miguel Berchelt for the WBC’s 130-pound title, but the beltholder suffered a hand injury. Instead, Roman receives the call after being stopped by Takashi Miura in his lone HBO appearance in January.
The duo figures to create an action fight in a career for Salido where wild shootouts have been the norm.
“I am looking forward to being back on HBO where I had the fight of the year in 2016,” said Salido, whose June slugfest with Francisco Vargas earned Ring Magazine’s fight of the year honors. “I am disappointed that Miguel Berchelt pulled out but my fight with Mickey Roman is a true Mexican War! And a win over Roman will put me back into a world title fight in 2018.”
Salido (44-13-4, 31 knockouts) hasn’t scored a notable win since his controversial victory over Lomachenko in March 2014. The 36-year-old went 0-1-2 between 2015 and 2016, though that include a debated draw with Roman Martinez that easily could have been tilted in Salido’s favor.
The Vargas fight, too, seemed to go Salido’s way. He was in talks since that bout to fight Lomachenko, but the sides couldn’t agree on money. Instead, “Siri” stayed busy with a seventh-round stoppage of Aristides Perez in May, and now he’s ready for his return to HBO.
“Also I want to dedicate my fight to the people of Las Vegas,” said Salido. “And I am so happy for my promoter Fernando Beltran to bring the fight to Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay where some of the most memorable fights were held like (Erik) Morales vs. (Marco Antonio) Barrera and (Felix) Trinidad vs. (Oscar) De La Hoya and so many more.”
Against Roman (57-12, 44 KOs), a Mexican journeyman, Salido will be heavily favored to return to winning ways and secure that title shot, possibly against Lomachenko in 2018.
Mike Coppinger is the Senior Writer for RingTV.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger