Giovani Santillan Returns with KO Win at Ontario, Calif.

ONTARIO, Calif.-Despite a lengthy uninvited vacation, Giovani Santillan returned to the welterweight wars with a quick knockout of Colombia’s Wilfrido Buelvas on Friday evening.

“I still need work,” said Santillan.

Santillan (25-0, 15 KOs) shook off 19 months of inactivity and shook off Buelvas (20-13, 14 KOs) with a second round knockout before a boisterous supportive crowd at Doubletree Hotel.

The Thompson Boxing Promotions team was more than pleased to see his return.

Back in April 2018, the San Diego southpaw Santillan blasted out his third consecutive foe in impressive fashion in defense of the NABO welterweight title. But an unexpected sabbatical due to unexplained business dilemmas kept him away.

Looking slightly older and less anxious Santillan peered across the boxing ring and saw he was fighting another southpaw. Lefty versus lefty is always an interesting proposition and like always, the right hook proves the difference almost every time southpaws collide.

After both tentatively traded combinations in the first round, Santillan entered the second round with more intent. A wide right hook that Buelvas did not see connected solidly and sent the Colombian sprawling to the floor. He rolled around a bit but got up before the count of 10. Santillan did not waste time and moved in with a right hook and left cross down the pipe. Down went Buelvas and referee Raul Caiz Jr. immediately stopped the fight at 2:31 of the second round.

Buelvas protested but he was clearly out-classed and hurt badly by the blows.

Santillan was all business but when asked how he compared to his last fight he said, “I give myself a seven.”

The welterweight division has another contender.

Torres wins

South Central L.A.’s Ruben Torres (11-0, 9 KOs) rocketed a right cross that proved to be the beginning of the end for Mexico’s Eduardo Rodriguez (8-2-1, 3 KOs) and followed it up with another eight blows that staggered the visiting fighter. Referee Wayne Hedgepeth stopped the super lightweight fight at 2:53 of the first round.

Torres has been steamrolling the competition with all wins but two coming by knockout. The tall lightweight is trained by Danny Zamora and has a pretty strong fan following. All have been accustomed to quick finishes lately.

Other Bouts  

A featherweight fight saw Roberto Meza (13-2-1, 6 KOs) start off hot against Sacramento’s Alberto Torres (11-3-3, 4 KOs), but around the fourth round things turned around. Torres began catching Meza darting in with big shots and kept the momentum after that.

The Sacramento southpaw Torres connected with the best punch of the fight in the seventh round and soon after Meza emerged with a bad cut near his left eye. The fight continued and it looked like Torres might have done enough to win the fight. But two judges saw it 78-74 for Meza and another 76-76 giving the Temecula fighter the win by majority decision.

In a fiery super bantamweight clash Jose Sanchez (5-0, 4 KOs) unloaded an eight-punch barrage on Mexico’s Brandon Jimenez (5-1, 2 KOs) at 1:55 of the second round that forced referee Wayne Hedgepeth to stop the fight. In the first round fighters traded evenly but Sanchez connected with a short right cross inside that staggered Jimenez and the Cathedral City fighter opened up with both barrels. Though Jimenez did not touch the canvas he was receiving a beating.

Saul Bustos (11-0-1, 6 KOs) won by knockout at the end of the third round over Tijuana’s Antonio Duarte (2-2) in a super welterweight fight. South El Monte’s Bustos had the quicker hands and was especially efficient with the left hook. Duarte was never knocked down but could not continue after the third round.

Photo credit: Al Applerose

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