In the last two installments of the Boxing 360 blogs we went over the best 2-5 fights of the year. From the little guys in “Chihuas” Rodriguez against Takayama to the welterweight wars between “The Machine” Matthysse and John Molina Jr and Robert “Ghost” Guerrero against man of the rising sun Yoshihiro Kamegai. In the fifth fight of the list we listed quite possibly the upset of the year when Chris Algieri got past the “Siberian Rocky” Ruslan Provodnikov with a split decision in a come-from-behind performance. Now we will unveil our best fight of 2014.
- 1. Orlando “Siri” Salido (42-5-2, 29KO) vs Terdsak Kokietgym (54-5-1, 34KO), Municipal Auditorium, Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico, September 20th. Only a fight that featured seven knockdowns and the home crowd cheering for the visitor should be named the fight of the year and that is exactly what happened in this all-out brawl. What was supposed to be a stay busy fight for the then interim WBO super featherweight champion Salido turned into a do or die affair as he went down three times in the first, second and fifth round while he sent down his Thai opponent four times, once in the first, fourth, seventh and eleventh.
Salido was coming off a win over current WBO featherweight champion Vasil Lomachenko. Unfortunately Salido wasn’t able to make weight or opted not to depending who you ask and lost his 126-pound title at the scale. Kokietgym hadn’t fought in the western hemisphere since 2008 when he came over to Las Vegas and lost a unanimous decision to Steven Luevano.
Kokietgym was the quicker of the two and with that was able to score sneaky punches that Salido never saw coming and thus met the canvas. For his part Salido was the stronger man and with sheer power was able to send the nearly as strong Kokietgym down.
A right hand followed by a left hook then a right hook followed by a come from nowhere left hook was the fatal combination that finally was able to stop the Kokietgym freight train. No count was needed as Kokietgym, known as the “Pitbull”, ended up sprawled on his back with no more strength to continue fighting.
Despite Salido’s win, Kokietgym was the man the educated Tijuana fighting public lined up to meet and get a photo with since he proved that not only to put on a great show but to win the fight.
Since the fight Kokietgym has actually gone back in the ring in his native Thailand stopping the mysterious Hengka (only goes by one name like Madonna) who Kokietgym stopped in three rounds of a scheduled six. Salido has not yet gone back in the ring but there are talks of him possibly defending his WBO super featherweight title against Puerto Rican up and coming prospect Felix Verdejo. Top Rank has gone on record to say they want that fight late next year with no opponent named for his next immediate opponent.
