Vic Saludar To Defend WBO Minimumweight Title In Puerto Rico
Vic Saludar is defending his WBO minimumweight title in Puerto Rico, according to Francisco Valcarcel.
Valcarcel, the WBO President, wrote on Twitter that Saludar will be heading to Puerto Rico for a title defense against mandatory challenger Wilfredo Mendez on August 24.
Our 105 pound World Champion, Vic Saludar, has agreed to face NABO Champion and Mandatory Challenger Wilfredo “Bimbito” Méndez on August 24 in Puerto Rico.
— Paco Valcárcel, Esq. (@PacoValcarcel) June 26, 2019
Saludar has held the WBO title since July 2018 when he traveled to Japan and defeated Ryuya Yamanaka to capture the title. In his first defense of the title, Saludar remained in Japan and beat Masataka Taniguchi by unanimous decision. By going to Puerto Rico for his next, that would mean all four of Saludar’s career world title fights have been contested in the home country of his opponent.
Mendez, a 22-year-old Puerto Rican who has fought as a pro since 2016, is currently on a four-fight win streak. Mendez is coming off a bizarre split decision win over Janiel Rivera on May 24 where Mendez won on two of the three scorecards with scores of 100-88 and 99-89 while the third judge had Rivera winning 97-91.
This will be the first time Puerto Rico was host to a world championship fight since June 2018 when Angel Acosta stopped Carlos Buitrago in the final round to retain his WBO light flyweight title. Prior to that, the last such fight took place in July 2017 when Amanda Serrano stopped Edina Kiss to retain the WBO super bantamweight title.
