Salido, 33, 40-12-2 28 KOs, is a short term titlest making his first or second defense and intentionally failing to make weight. He forfeited his featherweight belt to fight as a welterweight against two time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko, in his second professional fight. This fight had a lot of storylines:

1. Young fighter versus old fighter

2. Amateur versus pro

3. Welterweight versus lightweight

4. Spoiler versus phenom

What it ended up being about was corrupt officiating.

But first, let’s cover the action. The 136 pound Ukrainian threw no body shots [which are discouraged in Olympic style boxing] while Salido threw a ton of leather to the body. Lomachenko clinched for a full third of the fight. He has a fencing stile of boxing with a vertical fist jab and his lead foot is very active. However, he holds his head too far forward and fell into the clinch all night long. If I was his coach all I would work on is bringing the head back behind the knee and developing a shovel hook.

Salido threw dozens of low blows, which were not even warned for by the ref, even though the ref raised his eyebrow at one blatant low blow. Did I mention that Salido was the home town guy, and that the ref is always an incompetent operator, whose daddy is the State Athletic commissioner?

I can imagine Big Daddy Cole briefing his boy, “Now Son, we can’t have some godforsaken Rooski whipping old Chico’s hero.”

The fight was a disappointment on many levels, such as having a welterweight and a lightweight fight a featherweight bout, and Vasyl’s criminal lack of preparation by his handlers, who it seems never coached a pro. However, the crowning atrocity occurred when Vasyl hurt Salido badly in the 12th round, and, as he moved in for the finish, found out that Salido had brought a bodyguard into the ring, and his name was referee Lawrence Cole. He might be a daddy’s boy and a shit referee. But, I think he’d make a fine human shield for the next president to tour Texas.