Salido-Martinez is Close For March 21 in Puerto Rico

By Steve Kim

Coming off his thrilling come-off-the-canvas victory over Terdsak Kokietgym in September, Orlando Salido (42-12-2, 29KOs) could be involved in another 'Fight of the Year' candidate to begin his 2015 campaign. It looks like he'll be facing perennial tough guy, Rocky Martinez (28-2-2, 17KOs), on his turf.

"We're getting very close, hopefully, to putting everything to bed. The contract is for Puerto Rico on March 21st," said Sean Gibbons of Zanfer Promotions, which handles the Mexican who is currently the interim WBO junior lightweight titlist.

Because HBO and Showtime have shown no interest in this match-up, Gibbons says,"you have to get creative."

Which means?

"It would basically be In-Demand distributing on a small pay-per-view,"explained Gibbons to BoxingScene.com.

Peter Rivera, the head of PR Best Boxing Promotions, confirmed to BoxingScene on Wednesday - "We're working on that right now with Sean Gibbons and Zanfer Promotions to put together a fight we really believe will be a real good fight between two warriors."

Rivera citing the deep and storied history of the Mexican-Puerto Rican rivalry and Salido's track record on the island( where he twice defeated Juan Manuel Lopez) believes he has the ingredients for a successful promotion.

"We're close to a deal," he said.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.