Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 6y

Orlando Salido gets Miguel Roman after title bout falls through

Boxing

Orlando Salido has already won four world titles between featherweight and junior lightweight and there's nothing more that the Mexican warrior would like more than to claim another one in the twilight of his career.

He thought he would have that opportunity against countryman Miguel Berchelt, but Berchelt suffered a hand injury, forcing him to withdraw from the fight last week before it was even formally announced.

So Salido will still fight on Dec. 9 (HBO, 10:20 p.m. ET/PT) in the main event of a "Boxing After Dark" tripleheader at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but instead of challenging for a 130-pound world title he will face another one of his countrymen, battle-tested veteran Miguel "Mickey" Roman, in a 10-round fight for far less stakes but in a bout that figures to be an all-out battle between action fighters.

"I am little disappointed that I am not fighting Berchelt for the WBC belt, but injuries are part of boxing and these things happen all the time," Salido said at a media lunch in Los Angeles to announce the fight on Wednesday. "But a fight with Miguel Roman is a good fight and it should be an all-action Mexican war between two guys that will fight from start to finish.

"I'm very happy that I will be in the main event in Las Vegas, and I want to give the fans another great fight. I know I need to beat Roman to stay on course to fight for a world championship next year and that is what I intend to do on Dec. 9."

Salido (44-13-4, 31 KOs), 36, fought a savage and bloody draw with then-junior lightweight titleholder Francisco Vargas in the 2016 fight of the year. He has also been in memorable slugfests with Terdsak Jandaeng, Juan Manuel Lopez and Roman "Rocky" Martinez, fighting the latter two twice apiece. He also handed reigning junior lightweight titlist Vasyl Lomachenko, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, his only professional defeat, although that was Lomachenko's second pro fight and Salido was overweight for the featherweight title fight.

After the draw with Vargas, Salido returned in May for a fight in his hometown of Ciudad Obregon and scored an eighth-round knockout of Aristides Perez.

"Roman is a good fighter, but, honestly, I don't care who is in front of me. I always come to fight," Salido said. "This is no exception. I'm rested and ready for another war."

Salido's fight with Roman will compete head-to-head with Lomachenko's historic title defense against junior featherweight titleholder and fellow pound-for-pound elite Guillermo Rigondeaux in an ESPN main event at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York in the first fight in boxing history between fighters who both have won two Olympic gold medals.

"I guess in a way I am competing against Lomachenko, who is also on a TV card that night, but anyone that knows about fighting will know which fight will have drama and excitement and which one will have dancing," said Salido, who turned down offers to fight Lomachenko in a rematch for career-high money.

Roman (57-12, 44 KOs), 31, appeared on HBO on Jan. 28 and lost a competitive world title eliminator by 12th-round knockout to Takashi Miura. Roman rebounded for a 12th-round knockout win over Nery Saguilan on June 24. When Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) was injured, Roman got the call.

"I know this is a tough fight and I am going against a tough fighter, but I know what I am capable of and I believe that I will beat Salido," Roman said. "This is not an easy fight for either one of us, and the biggest winners will be the fans. This is a great opportunity for me and will take full advantage of it.

"I'm going to knock him out. I'm preparing for what could be a savage war with Salido because he is a tough fighter. But that doesn't scare me and I know that ultimately I will be the fighter to raise his hand in victory."

Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions, which is promoting the show with Tom Loeffler and Golden Boy Promotions, has been involved with many major Mexican fights, including one of the most famous, which he said Salido-Roman reminds him of.

"It reminds me a lot of [Erik] Morales versus [Marco Antonio] Barrera I, two Mexicans fighting at Mandalay Bay," he said of the legendary junior featherweight unification fight in 2000 that served as the first match of their epic trilogy. "We knew it would be fight of the year. We have the same feeling for this fight. We believe we have another fight of the year."

At the luncheon, the promoters announced that Vargas also will fight in one of the televised bouts. Although his opponent has not been formally announced, he will face England's Stephen Smith (25-3, 15 KOs), multiple sources with knowledge of the plans told ESPN.

Vargas has been out of action since losing his title by 11th-round knockout to Berchelt in January due to severe cuts. It was the second fight in a row that Vargas was badly cut. He also suffered terrible cuts in the draw with Salido.

Vargas (23-1-2, 17 KOs), 32, of Mexico, was offered the chance to have a rematch with Salido in the main event but turned it down rather than come off a layoff and go right back into what would surely be another grinding fight.

Smith, 32, is 2-2 in his past four fights with both defeats coming via clear-cut decision in junior lightweight world title bouts in 2016, to Jose Pedraza in April and Jason Sosa in November.

Although not yet formally announced, the card also will include another junior lightweight title bout. It will pit Tevin Farmer (25-4-1, 5 KOs), 27, of Philadelphia, and Kenichi Ogawa (22-1, 17 KOs), 29, of Japan, in a fight for the world title that became vacant when Gervonta Davis failed to make weight the day before an Aug. 26 fight against Francisco Fonseca on the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor undercard and was stripped.

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