By Rick Reeno
BoxingScene.com has been informed that WBA junior middleweight champion Daniel Santos (32-3, 23KOs) has turned down the opportunity to face WBC interim-junior middleweight Sergio Martinez (44-1, 24KOs) on February 14. The fight was going to be televised by HBO, paired in a triple-header with Alfredo Angulo-Ricardo Mayorga and Nate Campbell-Ali Funeka.
From what my source in Puerto Rico told me, Santos is overweight and needs more time to get his body down to 154-pounds. Santos is apparently upset that his promoter, Don King, announced that he accepted the fight without his approval. Martinez was originally scheduled to fight Joe Greene as the January 17 co-feature to Andre Berto's defense of the welterweight title against Luis Collazo. Greene withdrew from last week due to an issue with kidney stones. Martinez's fight was moved to February 14 to provide more time to find an HBO worthy opponent.
BoxingScene contacted Martinez's agent, Sampson Lewkowicz, who is making moves to find a suitable replacement. If Lewkowicz can't secure a suitable replacement by January 14, he will make a request to the WBC for an immediate purse bid to get Martinez in line to fight champion Vernon Forrest.
"If we can't find a suitable replacement by January 14, that HBO finds acceptable, I will have no choice but to move for immediate purse bid for Martinez to fight Vernon Forrest," Lewkowicz said.
