Jeo “Santino” Santisima (right) connects an uppercut to his opponent, Junior Bajawa of Indonesia in this CDN file photo.
CEBU CITY — Former world title challenger Jeo “Santino” Santisima missed a huge opportunity to fight for a world title eliminator in the undercard of Shawn Porter-Terrence Crawford world title showdown on November 20, 2021 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, USA.
Santisima, the No. 7 contender in the World Boxing Organization’s (WBO) featherweight division was initially tapped to fight No. 3 contender Isaac Dogboe of Ghana for a world title eliminator on Nov. 20.
According to Santisima he was eventually removed from the bout after another contender ranked higher than him allegedly filed a protest to replace him.
Santisima didn’t name the contender, however.
Ironically, the contender who was against Santisima failed to land the bout.
Dogboe will instead face a much-lower ranked contender, No. 12 Christopher Diaz of Puerto Rico in the Porter-Crawford undercard for a ten-rounder non-title duel.
“Wala madayon ang November 20 fight nako nga unta maapil sa undercard fight ni Porter ug Crawford. Ni protesta man ang No. 5 nga siya daw ang moduwa. World title eliminator unta to,” Santisima said.
(My November 20 fight did not push through and that I would have been included in the undercard of the Porter and Crawford fight. The No. 5 contender protested and presented himself that he should be the one to fight. It would have been a world title eliminator.)
“Ang ilahang rason sila ang angayan mo duwa. No. 7 ra ko unya bag-o pa sad ko naapil sa rating sa 126lbs division,” he said.
(Their reason is that they are supposed to be the right one to fight. I am No. 7 and I have just been recently included in the 126lb division rating.)
The 25-year-old Santisima could have improved his chances to fight for a world title again if the fight with Dogboe had pushed through.
“Sayang pero okay ra ana gyud na ang duwa sa boxing. Padayon lang gihapon og pangandam basin makaduwa ko December puhon,” said Santisima.
(What a wasted opportunity but I am okay with it because sometimes that is how the game of boxing is played. I will just continue to prepare and hope that I can fight this December.)
He already had his chance though, but faltered when he lost to two-division world champion Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico for the WBO world superbantamweight title in February 2020 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
After that loss, Santisima followed Navarette’s path by climbing from the superbantamweight to the featherweight division and won his last two bouts.
Santisima, the pride of Aroroy, Masbate has a record of 21 wins, 18 knockouts with 3 defeats.
The former ALA Boxing Gym pug now fights under Zip Sanman Team’s banner.
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