By Rick Reeno
WBC interim-junior middleweight Sergio Martinez (44-1, 24KOs) has agreed to face WBA champion Daniel Santos (32-3, 23KOs) on February 14 on HBO. Sampson Lewkowicz, the agent for Martinez, has informed BoxingScene.com that a deal was reached with Martinez. They are waiting on Santos to agree to the terms in order to finalize the fight.
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 the fight on Wednesday due to an issue with kidney stones. An offer was presented to Santos for a fight with Martinez on the Jan. 17 show. With less than two weeks to prepare, Santos turned the offer down.
Negotiations quickly resumed after HBO agreed to move Martinez to their Feb. 14 card, and approved Santos as the opponent. Sources in Puerto Rico believe that Santos will accept the fight. He was set to make a defense against Nobuhiro Ishida at the end of this month, but Ishida withdrew. Martinez's only loss came to Antonio Margarito. Santos holds a win over Margarito. That makes an interesting background bit for the fight.
"Terms were reached between Martinez and promoter Lou DiBella [Martinez's promoter]. We are just waiting on Santos to agree to the terms. Martinez proves once again that he is willing to take any challenge that comes his way," Lewkowicz said.
Martinez-Santos would turn the Feb. 14 card into a tripleheader. Already scheduled is undefeated junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo taking on Ricardo Mayorga and Nate Campbell defending his lightweight titles against mandatory Ali Funeka.
