Lomachenko to challenge Salido on March 1
11/12/2013 11:32
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said that a deal is done for WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (40-12-2) to defend his title against Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0) on the planned March 1 card at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, that is to feature a rematch between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1) and super middleweight Bryan Vera (23-7).
Salido previously held the WBO featherweight title from 2011 until January of this year when he was beaten by Mikey Garcia by an 8 round technical decision.
Mikey wasn’t able to hold onto the title for long, as he failed to make weight in his first title defense against Juan Manuel Lopez.
The title then went vacant and Salido was able to recapture it by defeating Orlando Cruz by a 7th round stoppage last October.
Lomachenko, a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, only turned pro last October and stopped Jose Rivera in the 4th round.
“The fight that is done for March 1 is Salido and Lomanchenko for the WBO featherweight championship,” said Arum. “I am meeting with Chavez Jr. on Friday in Los Angeles, and I hope to wrap that up at that meeting, but it’s not done yet.”
Chavez Jr. and Vera fought last September with Chavez Jr. winning a controversial 10 round unanimous decision in Carson, California.
Vera out-worked a sluggish looking Chavez Jr., and appeared to have done enough to deserve the win. However, the judges saw it differently and gave Chavez Jr. the victory.
After the fight, Chavez Jr. said he didn’t see any reason for needing to give Vera a rematch, but he soon changed his mind days later after seeing the huge amount of fans who saw his win as bogus.