Orlando Salido Wants Unification Clash With Jhonny Gonzalez in July

WBO featherweight titlist Orlando Salido is looking to return to the ring on July 21, and Salvador Rodriguez reports that the fight he wants most is a title unification bout with WBC titleholder Jhonny Gonzalez. Gonzalez faces Elio Rojas on April 28 in Cancun.

Salido (38-11-2, 26 KO) is coming off of a second thrilling win over Juan Manuel Lopez on the road in Puerto Rico, an early standout contender for 2012 Fight of the Year that no doubt will still be high on the list by the end of the campaign. He's had a phenomenal 12 months overall, with wins over Kenichi Yamaguchi and Weng Haya not garnering the same acclaim (and rightly so), but they were wins regardless.

Gonzalez (51-7, 45 KO) is on an 11-fight win streak dating back to 2009, and all of those wins have come by stoppage, none later than the sixth round. The bulk of the wins have come over gatekeeper types who never really had much hope to win, and since beating Hozumi Hasegawa for the WBC featherweight belt in April 2011, Gonzalez has without question faced a very soft slate of challengers, defeating Tomas Villa, Rogers Mtagwa, and Roinet Caballero.

But Gonzalez's next fight could be a lot trickier. Rojas (23-1, 14 KO) has fought just once since February 2010 -- a win in November over Arturo Gomez -- but when he was active, he was a handful. He never lost the WBC title, but inactivity got in the way of his keeping it. He's basically coming to claim what is his, and with Gonzalez's iffy whiskers, you just never know.

So while a Salido vs Gonzalez bout sounds great on paper, it's far too soon to count the chickens. If it does happen, and Salido wins, he says it's possible he could move up to 130, and has named Adrien Broner as a possible opponent if he does move up in weight.