Orlando Salido

Orlando Salido Rivera (born November 16, 1980) is a former Mexican professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2017.

Salido debuted as a professional in 1996, at the age of 15.

Salido suffered several losses in his early career, sporting an 8-6-1 record after 15 fights.

Salido was knocked out 5 times during this period, but he has not been stopped since March 2000.

Salido faced former WBO super featherweight world champion Regilio Tuur on 23 November 2001, defeating him via split decision after eight rounds.

Nine days later, he faced former WBC featherweight champion Alejandro Martín González but lost a majority decision after ten rounds.

Salido then took a fight against IBF #1 featherweight contender Lamont Pearson on a weeks' notice.

Salido got a decisive unanimous decision win, which introduced him to the sanctioning bodies' rankings, making him a title contender.

Starting with the Pearson fight, Salido went on a nine fight undefeated streak before losing to IBF and WBA featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez by a 12-round unanimous decision in September 2004.

The fight took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the undercard of undisputed middleweight unification fight between Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya.

Salido came into the fight very passive giving away many of the early and middle rounds, Marquez was successfully counter punching Salido and building a significant lead.

Salido closed strong and won the later rounds but that wasn't enough.

The three judges scored the fight 118-110, 117-111, 117-111.

Salido rebounded with a win over Rogers Mtagwa in an IBF eliminator.

Salido stopped Mtagwa with a barrage of body punches, earning another title shot with the win.

On November 4, 2006, he defeated Robert Guerrero for the IBF featherweight title, by a unanimous decision.

The official scorecards read 115-113, 118-110, 117-111.

Salido's win over Guerrero was later overturned, as Salido tested positive for steroids after the fight.

As a result of his positive test for Nandrolone (an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body in minute quantities), Salido was stripped of his title and faced disciplinary action in Nevada, which included a suspension.

Salido maintained his innocence and said he had a follow-up test at LabCorp two days after the positive result had come back.

The findings were negative of any steroids.

Salido returned to the ring ten months later with an eighth round unanimous decision victory over journeyman Marty Robbins.

In his next fight, he knocked out Hector Julio Avila in another IBF title eliminator.

In late 2008, Salido had the opportunity to fight again for the IBF belt that he was forced to vacate due to his suspension, against Cristobal Cruz.

Salido lost the bout via split decision.

A judge scored it 115-113 for Salido, while the other two had it 116-112 for Cruz.

Salido got off to a good start winning the first and middle rounds.

Cruz never gave up and started to look better around the 8th and 9th rounds, forcing the action and closing the fight very strong.

Many observers though that Salido deserved the victory because of the big lead that he built in the first 2 thirds of the fight.

He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight title in 2010, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight title twice between 2011 and 2014, and the WBO interim junior lightweight title from 2014 to 2015.

After winning two fights against lower level opponents, Salido avenged the defeat in a rematch in May 2010.

Salido knocked down Cruz twice in the 2nd round and pressed the action pounding Cruz for the entire fight.

The final scorecards read 117-109, 117-109, and 116-110, all in favour of Salido.

With the win, Salido became a world champion for the first time, at the age of 30.

On September 11, 2010, he faced WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa at the Palms Casino Resort in Paradise, Nevada, in a unification bout.

Salido lost a 12-round unanimous decision.

The IBF title was only at stake for Gamboa as Salido was stripped of it prior to the fight due to weighing more than ten pounds over the weight limit at a second weigh-in on the morning of the event.

Gamboa controlled much of the early rounds but was dropped in round 8.

Salido is known for taking part in many entertaining, classic fights, with his bout against Francisco Vargas being named 2016 Fight of the Year by several media outlets.

Salido is also highly regarded for his upset wins over Juan Manuel López and Vasiliy Lomachenko, both of whom were considered to be among the best active boxers, pound for pound, during Salido's career.