The thrilling career of one of the sport’s most consistently exciting warriors came to a close on Saturday night in Las Vegas, as Mexico’s Orlando Salido announced his retirement after suffering a stoppage defeat to countryman Miguel Roman. The teak-tough 37 year old admitted how all the hard, hard fights he has had throughout his long, nearly 22-year pro career have caught up with him.
“All the wars caught up with me, I’m an old fighter now,” the warrior known as “Siri” stated after the 9th-round TKO loss to Roman.
All that’s left now is for fight fans the world over to wish Salido a happy retirement, and to ask the question: is he worthy of going into The Hall of Fame when the time comes?
A casual glance at Salido’s final record – 44-14-4(31) during which he was stopped just four times; including in his very first pro outing – doesn’t suggest Orlando is Hall of Fame-bound. But these numbers are very misleading. Look at the overall body of work of Salido, and a case can be made for him being HOF material.
Salido holds fine wins over: Cristobal Cruz (who also holds a decision win over Salido) Juan Manuel Lopez (X2), Orlando Cruz, Terdsak Jandaeng, Roman “Rocky” Martinez (who also boxed to a draw with Salido in yet another great action fight) and a fellow named Vasyl Lomachenko. With a Fight of The Year candidate with Francisco Vargas from 2016, another draw, also on his record, it’s clear Salido has some resume.
A world champion at featherweight and super-featherweight, Salido fought the best and was usually only ever beaten by the best on the occasion when he did lose: Salido suffering quite a few early career defeats, he being a classic example of a fighter thrown in deep early on and then improving vastly in his later years and fights.
And that big, big, the-only-man-to-do-it-at-pro-level decision win over the simply incredible Lomachenko adds mightily to Salido’s chances of going into The Hall. However he may have managed it (over the weight, in what was only Lomachenko’s second pro bout) Salido did something that, quite simply, no other fighter in the world today at 130 to 135 pounds, looks capable of doing.
Saldio will hold that unavenged win over the current pound-for-pound kind for the rest of his life. This is not likely to be the fight Salido cherishes the most when he looks back on his up and down career in years to come, but the boxing historians may well remember it as his biggest achievement.
These same boxing experts, some of them anyway, will, in time, have the tough job of deciding whether or not the Lomachenko win combined with all his other triumphs inspires them to tick the ballot box next to Salido’s name whenever the Hall of Fame ballot sheets with his name on come around.
What do you guys think, is Salido a future Hall of Famer?