Salido halts Kokietgym in slugfest

Orlando “Siri” Salido (42-12-2, 29 KOs) stopped Terdsak “Pit Bull” Kokietgym (53-5-1, 33 KOs)  on Saturday night at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, BC, Mexico.

In a fight of the year candidate, both Salido and Kokietgym were more than willing to trade blows and both were knocked down in round one. Southpaw Kokietgym floored Salido with a counter overhand left, but Salido rose from the deck to score a knockdown of his own later in the round on a body shot that appeared to land low. Salido was knocked down again by a left hand at the end of round two but the rugged Mexican rallied to send Kokietgym down again in round four. Kokietgym floored Salido in round five but Salido dominated the action after that.  Salido sent Kokietgym into the ropes and down to the canvas with a damaging right cross in Round 7 and then continued to punish his Thai opponent. Salido came out in the eleventh determined to end it and he did, with a vicious, three-punch combination that left Kokietgym out on his back, leaving referee Eddie Claudio no need to count him out.

With the win, Salido claimed the interim WBO super featherweight title.

Micky Garcia, who defeated Salido for the WBO featherweight belt in January 2013, currently holds the super featherweight version of the title but remains inactive due to a promotional dispute.