Fight Chatter: Salido-Lopez Rematch, Victor Ortiz, Canelo-Mayorga, and More

Lots of fight talk out there today for fights that have been signed, are in talks, or whatever else. Let's take a look at the batch.

• A rematch between Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido could come sooner than expected. Salido wanted to make a defense in July in Mexico, probably something very winnable that would give him a chance to celebrate his big win with a defense at home, but Lopez and his team are pushing for an immediate rematch instead of waiting until late this year. August is the target.
• Selcuk Aydin is again trying to finally get his mandatory shot at the WBC's version of the welterweight belt, now held by Victor Ortiz. Aydin (21-0, 16 KO) escaped last June with a controversial win in Turkey over Jo Jo Dan, and has fought just once since, knocking out Dzmitry Lubachkin, who might very well have had the softest 18-0 record of all time coming into that fight. Seriously, go look at that record. Of the 18 wins, 13 of the fighters were making their pro debuts, and of the other five, nobody had more than three pro fights, and only one guy had ever won a fight. He was 1-1-1. That seriously has to be the emptiest record I have ever, ever seen. That's unreal. Given that Berto didn't fight Aydin because he's not worth any money and HBO isn't exactly clamoring to put him on TV, Ortiz-Aydin probably isn't high on the new wish list, either.
• Michael Marley says that there are preliminary talks to match Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Ricardo Mayorga later this year. Given what we've seen lately, hopefully Canelo isn't looking past Ryan Rhodes for his own sake.
• John Murray and Kevin Mitchell will fight one another for Murray's European lightweight title. Mitchell hasn't fought since his third round wipeout at the hands of Michael Katsidis last year. Frank Warren is working on a date and site. Tough comeback for Mitchell, good fight for Murray. If Murray does beat Mitchell, I'd like to see Murray against Katsidis after that -- it would make sense, give Murray a big-name opponent who has a UK and US following, and is probably quite winnable at this point.
  
• Gennady Golovkin will head to Panama on June 2 or June 4 to face Kassim Ouma. Golovkin (20-0, 17 KO) is one of the bright spots in the rebuilding middleweight division, while Ouma (27-7-1, 17 KO) found some magic last year to revitalize a dwindling career, losing a debated decision to Vanes Martirosyan and beating Joey Gilbert in September. Ouma is 32 and really isn't a middleweight, but despite losing five of his last seven hasn't really been blown out by anyone. The bad news is this means that a match between Golovkin and Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam is once again on the back burner.
• Unheralded David Lopez is apparently going to finally get his shot, as he's set to face Austin Trout on June 11 in Mexico. Lopez (40-12, 23 KO) hasn't lost a fight since 2005, going on a 16-fight win streak over that time, and a lot of the guys he's beaten are good, solid pros -- Saul Roman, Ossie Duran, Michel Rosales, Danny Perez, Epfianio Mendoza, Billy Lyell, etc. Certainly not Murderer's Row, but a very respectable mark, and fact is when you consistently beat guys on that level, you deserve a shot at the next level. Trout (22-0, 13 KO) is a 25-year-old southpaw from New Mexico who holds a trinket now after beating Rigoberto Alvarez, and is sort of in promotional limbo after the fall of "The Empire," but he's free to fight it appears, which is good news. It's a very good fight for both of them.
• Jorge Linares is lining up a May 28 fight in Mexico, with Willie Limond a possible opponent. After that, Golden Boy could match Linares with Juan Diaz, Michael Katsidis or possibly Robert Guerrero. Of the three, the only fight I have real interest in seeing anymore is Guerrero-Linares.
• In case you missed it, the Lamont Peterson-Victor Cayo fight for April 29 on Friday Night Fights is off as Cayo suffered a shoulder injury. Tim Coleman, who was supposed to fight Cayo before being leapfrogged by Peterson, turned down a chance to replace Cayo in the fight. Quite colorfully, I might add. No word on who Peterson will fight.
  
• Guillermo Jones will defend his cruiserweight trinket against Ryan Coyne off TV on the Devon Alexander-Lucas Matthysse card, taking place June 25. Nice to see Jones fighting regularly.