Orlando Salido (35-11-2, 23 KOs) makes the first defense of the WBO featherweight title he took from Juan Manuel Lopez in April when he steps into the ring this Saturday against Japan’s Kenichi Yamaguchi (17-1-2, 4 KOs) at the Centro de Usos Multiples in his hometown of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico.
Salido stopped the well-regarded Puerto Rican, Lopez, in eight rounds in his last bout and, prior to that, gave Cuban star, Yuriorkis Gamboa a tougher-than-expected outing in a unanimous decision loss. The 30-year-old has also been in the ring with Juan Manuel Marquez (L-UD 12), Rogers Mtagwa (W- TKO 5) and Cristobal Cruz (W- UD 12, L- SD 12). He also scored a unanimous decision victory over Robert Guerrero that was changed to a no contest after Salido tested positive for a banned substance.
Yamaguchi, of Osaka, Japan, has only one fight of note — a bizarre no contest to Australian featherweight, Billy Dib in 2009. In that bout Yamaguchi dropped Dib early in the first and was dropped, himself, near the end of the round. Dib then landed another shot while Yamaguchi was clearly on his knees. The Japanese fighter still beat the count, but was ruled unable to continue by the Australian referee, provoking a small, in-ring melee. The TKO loss for Yamaguchi was later, oddly ruled a no contest.
