With Adrien Broner recently announcing that he was moving to the Lightweight division it's left the Super Featherweight division a bit devoid of big name fighters, that however doesn't leave the division void of good match ups and this weekends IBF Super Featherweight title between champion Juan Carlos Salgado (25-1-1-1, 16) and challenger Jonathan Victor Barros (34-2-1, 18) is proof of that. Whilst neither man is particularly well known, especially in the US, this is a bout that is genuinely deserving of an alphabet belt and sees two genuine top 10 fighters facing off for a title.
Champion Salgado, of Mexico, first made a name for himself back in 2009 when he scored a huge upset over the very highly regarded (and then WBA Super Featherweight champion) Jorge Linares, stopping Linares in just 73 seconds. Salgado's first reign as a champion however was short lived as he lost his title to the hard hitting Japanese fighter Takashi Uchiyama just 3 months later (in his first defence).
Since then Salgado has has managed to reclaim a version of the world title (the IBF belt) by defeating the once touted Argenis Mendez and defended it twice (including a No Contest with Miguel Beltran Jr). Though he still hasn't managed to get much acclaim despite being a 2-time world champion he is a very solid fighter who hits harder than his record indicates. Sadly however many fans will downplay him due to the fact he struggled with veteran Martin Honorio.
With Nacho Beristain in his corner Salgado not only has one of the best trainers in the sport but also a man who knows how to use a fighters natural advantages which means Salgado's height (he's 5'9", relatively huge for a Super Featherweight) and reach will come into play, and often do with Salgado having a very solid jab and a hard straight right. Though he is limited by slow hands and feet, which could well be an issue here.
The challenger, Argentinian Jonathan Victor Barros has been around for years (literally, he debuted back in 2004) and first came to the public's attention in 2010 when he faced Cuban cyclone Yuriorkis Gamboa in a WBA Featherweight title fight. Whilst he was often outclassed in the early and middle rounds of that bout Barros showed his toughness and fought hard down the stretch to win several of the later rounds in a brave losing effort. He proved against Gamboa that he was tough and whilst he wasn't the most skilled he refused to go away and fought hard.
Just 9 months after facing Gamboa, Barros would actually claim the then vacant WBA Featherweight title (after Gamboa unified the WBA and IBF titles to become the "WBA Unified Champion") by defeating Irving Berry (TKO7). Barros' reign however was short lived as he lost the title 10 months later, he did however manage to successfully defend the title twice by out pointing both Miguel Roman (UD) and the highly regarded Celestino Caballero (SD). Barros' reign came to an end as he suffered a reversal to Caballero when the two men rematched at the end of 2011.
Although Barros has spent most of his career so far at Featherweight he's now moving up to Super Featherweight to challenge Salgado. Despite this Barros is likely to be the quicker man (as I've mentioned Salgado is incredibly slow for Super Feather) and he is incredibly tough having taken the best that both Caballero and Gamboa had to offer. Whilst he has been dropped through his career (including by Gamboa, Caballero and the little known Adrian Marcelo Flamenco) he has shown great resiliency and a lot of heart which is likely to be on show again here.
I'm expecting to see Barros trying to make the bout messy and fought up close, not only is that his style but it also neutralises the natural size advantage of Salgado. This could make the bout rather frustrating with bursts of action interspersed with repeated breaks though if Barros is going to try and keep the bout up close and personal he needs to remember where he is, Mexico, Salgado's back yard. Barros will need to keep up a high work rate and try to back the rounds, if he's going to win it's going to be a close decision.
For Salgado to win he can hope that his extra size (and power) can hurt Barros enough to stop him, though in all honesty we would seriously doubt that he'd be able to score a stoppage, instead he'll need to try and slow Barros down. Whilst I favour Salgado to get the win if it's a close bout he'll likely have to fight hard against his challenger.
Both men are capable of out pointing the other however I seriously doubt if either man can hurt the other enough to force the stoppage. Sadly this by it's self is why I favour Salgado, who, as I've mentioned, will be fighting at home, it should however be a very fun fight with a lot of punches thrown, even if it does get scrappy at times.
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