Since, Salido has been taking his own token fights, each apparently designed to capitalize on his newfound popularity for striking another blow in the Mexico-Puerto Rico boxing war -- but with the merest fraction of a risk. And he damn near got knocked out in the last one. You get the impression he's doing this rematch now after putting it off for a while because he realizes he could get his clock cleaned at any time, so he might as well take a little extra risk for a lot of extra money and see how it goes. And Lopez, in his last fight while waiting for Salido to give him a rematch, looked like he hadn't changed a damn thing about his sloppy, sluggy self after a Salido loss that should've been a wake-up call.However precariously, though, these are two of the best featherweights in the world right now. Salido is Ring's #3 man in the division, and Lopez is at #4. More importantly, it's just kind of a can't-miss fight for its entertainment quotient. The first one was a straight-up brawl, really, where the slightly better technician was Salido, which says something because Salido wasn't far removed from his days as a journeyman. But he's a legit contender now, having graduated from a journeyman's mere competence to the ability to beat or at least severely trouble pound-for-pound types like Gamboa or Lopez. He's got just enough skill to go with his grit to make him a formidable foe, even against a faster and more powerful opponent. If Lopez is a little better than last time (he says he didn't spend as much time being a fattie this go around as he did before the last go-round) and if Salido's reflexes are a little duller than last time (never quick, he looked a bit slower than usual in his last fight), then we could have an even better bout than the first one.
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