Orlando Salido expects ‘rough fight’ against Francisco Vargas at StubHub Center

The StubHub Center will be packed Saturday with fans drawn to watch if super-featherweight world champion Francisco Vargas will produce a second straight fight of the year when he faces challenger Orlando Salido.

“People talk about having strategy in boxing,” Salido said. “I go in there to throw as many punches as I can and hurt the other guy. That’s what’s going to count at the end of the fight.”

Salido, 35, a former featherweight champion who staged his own pair of 2015 fight-of-the-year candidates against Puerto Rico’s Roman “Rocky” Martinez, is marking his 20th year in the sport.

There’s not a better way to do it than against World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs), who in November got off the canvas and recovered from getting badly wobbled and cut to take the belt from Japan’s Takashi Miura by ninth-round technical knockout to win the fight of the year.

“You have to respect his heart. He showed guts. Will he be able to do that again, against me? We’ll find out,” Salido said of Vargas. “It’s going to be a rough fight, but I don’t think he likes to throw combinations. I throw different punches. I think I have a little more skill.”

The 31-year-old Vargas’ preparation for this bout was clouded by his positive drug test in April for the banned weight-loss stimulant clenbuterol. The California State Athletic Commission allowed the fight to proceed, accepting Vargas’ explanation that the substance came from contaminated beef he ate after setting up training camp in Mexico.

Vargas returned to Ontario to train with new sparring partners, and state commission Executive Officer Andy Foster announced Thursday that Vargas is the most heavily tested fighter in state history – with every subsequent test returned clean.

“Sparring partners are essential … for this camp, we were looking for fighters who had that come-forward style, who could pressure me. We know Salido is going to do that … I had everything assembled in Mexico,” Vargas said. “Fortunately, we found some guys who helped me [here] and I did have a good training camp.”

How does he beat off the stigma that attaches to those who submit a positive drug test?

“Those [follow-up] exams have been negative,” Vargas said. “After this fight, hopefully, it will be proven that I’m a clean fighter.”

Vargas has used the word “dirty” in describing Salido’s fighting style.

“I go in there throwing punches. I’m very aggressive,” Salido (43-13-3, 30 knockouts) said. “I get hurt, too. I feel the pain and I get tired, but I’m fighting for a world title, so you have to suck it up and go back at it.”

Salido pondered quitting the sport after his seventh loss in 2001, but a $4,500 purse lured him from his new construction job in Mexico. Salido got a draw in that bout, but when he returned to the construction site he found he’d been fired and had no choice but to keep fighting.

Salido has steadily fought whoever wants a date, including Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Manuel Lopez, Vasyl Lomachenko and Mikey Garcia. Lomachenko will attend Saturday’s bout and seeks a title-unification rematch with Salido, who won in 2014.

“He’s one of the best warriors my country has ever made,” Salido’s Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran said. “Now, he’s fighting for the same belt [Erik] Morales, [Julio Cesar] Chavez and [Marco Antonio] Barrera got... He’s like the real ‘Rocky’ -- always the underdog, always giving us great fights.”

Said Salido: “It all has to come into play Saturday … 20 years of fighting the best fighters in the world.”

The HBO card opens with a featherweight bout between unbeatens Julian Ramirez of Los Angeles and Abraham Lopez of La Puente.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire