CAROLINA, PUERTO RICO- WBO junior lightweight king Orlando “Siri” Salido arrived this afternoon to Puerto Rico to complete his training en route to his match against former world champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez on “The War”, will take place on Saturday, April 11, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in a presentation of PR Best Boxing Promotions (PRBBP) in association with Promociones Zanfer, and broadcast on “Pay Per View” in Puerto Rico, United States and Canada for all Cable TV and Satellite systems.
Roman Martinez
Salido and Martinez Gear up for War on April 11!
By Everest Castaneda: WBO super featherweight champion Orlando “Siri” Salido’s (42-12-2, 29 KOs) first title defense will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on April 11 against tough, former WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (28-2-2, 17 KOs). Although Salido had “two offers on the table” since being elevated to full WBO champion, his manager, Sean Gibbons, in an interview by ESPN.com, decided that Martinez “…will be there mixing it up with Orlando. They can both crack.”
Since losing his title to former WBO super featherweight champion, Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia (34-0, 24 KOs), Martinez has had one win by knockout over journeyman Herbert “Sensational” Quartey (12-11, 9 KOs). Although Quartey was riding a 2 fight win streak at the time, we’ve seen him get completely dismantled in his last fight by up-and-coming prospect Lamont Roach Jr. (6-0, 3 KOs); thereby, making Martinez’s most recent victory rather lackluster.
Mikey Garcia wants Yuriorkis Gamboa next
By Dan Ambrose: Newly crowned WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) is targeting interim WBA lightweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) next following Mikey’s 8th round KO win over WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KO’s) last Saturday night at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Garcia said this to HBO about a potential fight against Gamboa: “I’m willing to go up and meet him at 135 if he doesn’t want to come down. I think it would be a great fight. People would want to see it. Why not? Let’s do it. I think anybody they put in front of me, I’m ready to fight.”
Roman Martinez should make Mikey Garcia look good tonight
By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has wisely chosen the perfect fighter for Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27 KO’s) to be facing in his first fight in the 130 lb. division by matching him against WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KO’s) tonight at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Martinez is a fighter that should make Mikey look good, and probably a lot better than he is. Roman is arguably the weakest of the four super featherweight champions, and the most beatable one for Mikey to pick up a title against. It’s not that Mikey isn’t a good fighter, because he’s definitely a quality fighter. But there are major question marks about him after his performance against Orlando Salido from last January.
What we saw specifically in that fight was that Mikey was good for 5 rounds, but then he lost a lot of his power after those rounds, and he didn’t look good when Salido began to take the fight to him. Mikey’s corner quickly pulled the trigger in having the fight stopped once he suffered a nose injury in the 8th round, and it coincided with Salido starting to really get to Mikey.
Martirosyan with tough battle against Andrade on Saturday
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise presents an action-packed tripleheader when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: ROCKY MARTINEZ VS. MIKEY GARCIA, NONITO DONAIRE VS. VIC DARCHINYAN II AND VANES MARTIROSYAN VS. DEMETRIUS ANDRADE is seen SATURDAY, NOV. 9 at 9:30 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Tex., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Ariza thinks Mikey Garcia can find success like Pacquiao
By Chris Williams: This Saturday night Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27 KO’s) will be challenging WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KO’s) for his title on HBO from the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Garcia’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is excited about the transformation that Mikey’s body has gone through recently while following his strength and conditioning regimen.
Ariza said to fighthype “I’ve seen what happened to Manny, especially physically…with how he went to the next level…I’m seeing Mikey doing the same…he’s only going to get bigger, stronger…start moving down the divisions.”
WBO orders Roman Martinez vs. Mikey Garcia
By Dan Ambrose: WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KO’s) has until October to fight against #1 WBO, Mikey Garcia (33-0, 27 KO’s) or else they’ll strip Martinez of his title.
The World Boxing Organization ordered the mandatory defense for Martinez despite the fact that he recently defened his WBO title against his mandatory challenger Juan Carlos Burgos 6 months ago in January. It looks like the WBO is in a hurry to have Roman Martinez face Mikey Garcia for some reason.
Mikey lost his WBO featherweight title last June when he failed to make weight for his mismatch against Juan Manuel Lopez. The fight still went ahead with Mikey destroying Lopez in the 4th round, but they WBO featherweight strap was stripped from.
Arum interested in matching Mikey Garcia vs. Rocky Martinez next for WBO 130 lb. title
By Chris Williams: It didn’t take Bob Arum of Top Rank very long to point out the fight he wants next for his fighter Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27 KO’s) after his 4th round TKO victory over Juan Manuel Lopez (33-3, 30 KO’s) last night in Dallas, Texas.
Arum is saying he’d like to match Mikey up against WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KO’s) next. For Arum, this is a no-brainer because he promotes Rocky Martinez as well, so it would be an in house Top Rank fight for him. Both guys are stable fighters, and it’s easy fight to make.
Zou beats Valenzuela; Estrada defeats Viloria; Martinez decisions Magdaleno
By Chris Williams: Making his pro debut tonight, former two time Gold medalist for China Zou Shiming (1-0) defeated 18-year-old Eleazer Valenzuela (2-2-1, 1 KO’s) by a four round unanimous decision at the Cotai Arena, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. The final judges scores were 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.
Zou smartly out-boxed Valenzuela in each round, hitting with jabs, hooks to the head and right hands to to the body. Zou looked impressive in making Valenzuela miss with his shots. The only negative I could see in his performance was his lack of power. He wasn’t able to back up Valenzuela, although he did hurt him in late in the 3rd round with a hard left hand.
What Mayweather, Haye, Klitschko(s) and others can learn from Ricky Burn’s win over Roman Martinez
By Gary Brownlie: On Saturday night a man from Coatbridge Ricky Burns (29-2, 7 KO’s) turned in the performance of a lifetime, defeated an undefeated world champion and claimed the WBO Super-featherweight world title. To say the least, his performance showed heart, determination and talent. Here was a man, written off by the pundits and experts but still confident and willing to go into the ring against the undefeated Puerto Rican, Roman “Rocky” Martinez (24-1-1, 15 KO’s). The first round belonged to the champion, with a flash knock down. The disappointment was written all over Ricky’s face as he fell back against the ropes, caught flat footed with a straight right. It was a lesson learned for the man from Coatbridge.