With all the hype coming into the bout Saturday surrounding two time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko, Orlando Salido was lost in the conversation.
Salido spoke up Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas and outpointed Lomachencko and took home the victory fairly handily, despite what the split decision end result read.
Coming in 11 pounds heavier than Lomachenko at 147 pounds, it was like Lomachenko was fighting a welterweight in the ring.
The other big story was not either fighter’s performance, but was the bad refereeing job of Laurence Cole did that impacted the bout.
Low blow after low blow, Salido threw multiple shots below the belt in seemingly every round and was not once deducted a point, let alone warned about the illegal shots.
Cole also let both fighters hold way too much during the fight, Lomachenko early on and Salido in the latter rounds, and never did anything except give a warning or two.
In the end Lomachenko looked just what you expect a fighter trying to win a title in his second pro bout to look like, unprepared and out-classed.
The Compubox numbers showed the fight was close on the power punch-count side, as Salido landed 137-of-546 power punches thrown for a 25 percent connect rate, as Lomachnko landed 105-of-239 of his power punches for a 44 percent connect rate.
Salido took the bout, but no the title since he came in two-and-a-half pounds overweight which resulted in him being stripped of his title after the weigh in Friday.
Lomachencko showed heart at the end of the bout in a late-round rally, but with the hole he dug himself into it was too late. It will be interesting to see how Lomachenko does against another top opponent who is not out weighing him by double-digit amounts going forward.
