WBC chooses Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido bout as its fight of the year
In a likely precursor to the official fight-of-the-year award, the World Boxing Council on Monday announced the June 4 Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido draw at StubHub Center as the sanctioning body’s fight of the year.
The award, sponsored by Tecate, is to be presented later in the day at the WBC Convention outside Miami .
Mexico’s Vargas, the WBC super-featherweight champion, becomes the first fighter in organization history to participate in two consecutive WBC fight-of-the-year events, after his riveting November 2015 victory to claim the belt over Japan’s Takashi Miura. This is the 54th WBC Convention.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said the honor is the most prestigious given at the convention, which began Sunday in Hollywood, Fla.
Vargas (23-0-2) endured cuts over both eyes in the slugfest against the veteran former featherweight champion from Mexico, who epitomizes the classic fighting style of descendants including new International Boxing Hall of Fame member Marco Antonio Barrera, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Erik Morales.
“I believe Muhammad Ali’s spirit was alive in that event,” said Sulaiman, reminding that Ali died the night before the bout. “The way Vargas and Salido performed for all 12 rounds, with so much drama — both being hurt and cut — it was unbelievable. I’m sure Muhammad Ali passed on his spirit to them that night.”
Tecate executive Gustavo Guerra said Vargas-Salido, which beat out the Sept. 10 Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez-Carlos Cuadras bout at the Forum and Jorge Linares’ fall victory over Anthony Crolla in England, embodies why his company has sponsored the sport for a decade.
“We know some fights aren’t that big, but we are so proud to be part of the sport and an event like that … being a Mexican brand, this aligns with our origin and roots of the Mexican warrior and Mexican [fighting] style,” Guerra said.
Vargas-Salido is a front-runner along with the July World Boxing Assn. featherweight title victory by Carl Frampton over Los Angeles’ Leo Santa Cruz for the Boxing Writers Assn. of America fight of the year, which is to be announced early in 2017.
“Without a doubt, I was humbled by the [Vargas-Salido] performance. It cannot get better than what we saw that magical night in California,” Sulaiman said.
Vargas is set to return to the ring Jan. 28 to defend his belt at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino in Indio, and Salido is lobbying to fight World Boxing Organization super-featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko next.
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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