My phone just died as I was talking to Tachi Palace veteran Dominique Robinson, the first fighter to report this. I have some incredibly sad news to report. Fellow TPF veteran Sergio Salcido was murdered on his way back into the United States from Mexico. According to Robinson, on the road, Salcido got into some sort of verbal altercation, over something that he described as “not even that serious”. At 2:40 AM, as Salcido was waiting in line at a Border Patrol checkpoint for re-entry into the US, the person he had the altercation with walked up to his car and fired five shots from a 9MM pistol, killing Salcido and his friend, Kevin Joel Romero. He was 25, while Romero was 28. Since the Mexico police system is currently involved in full scale drug wars, it will be a long time before the killer is found, if ever.
Salcido, nicknamed “Suave”, was a submission fighter who held a record of 4-5 fighting in California promotions. His last fight was a submission loss to TUF 12 veteran Sako Chivitchyan back in late 2009. After that, Robinson says, is where the problem started. Due to lack of sponsorship or opportunity in the sport, Salcido moved to Mexico, where he became involved in a rather hard lifestyle. Such is the reason Robinson blames MMA for his friend’s demise.
Not only was it the lack of opportunities in MMA that Robinson talked about, but he blamed the mainstream MMA media in full force, calling them “pieces of s—”. His reasoning was that this sort of murder would have been far over-covered had it happened to one of the top fighters; however, no top media source (Sherdog, Junkie, etc.) has covered it; in fact, to my knowledge, CI is only the second source period. He singled out Loretta Hunt for particular criticism; apparantly one of his friends, when first finding out of the murder, asked her to report it; she apparantly didn’t “have enough room to cover it.” Hunt has not responded to requests for comment as of the first publishing.
All criticism aside, we should take the time and mourn the needless losses experienced early today. The one-man show here at CI is sending all thoughts and prayers possible to the affected families and friends. Rest in Peace Sergio & Kevin. You will be well missed.
