MINNEAPOLIS – Alfredo Santiago emphatically came back Saturday night from his own knockout loss to Ricardo Nunez last year.
Santiago overpowered Karl Dargan and stopped him in the first round of a lightweight fight that was scheduled for 10 rounds on the non-televised portion of the Stephen Fulton-Daniel Roman undercard at The Armory. The Dominican Republic’s Santiago stopped Philadelphia’s Dargan just 1:21 into their fight and became the first fighter to knock out Dargan in 22 professional fights.
Santiago dropped Dargan with a left hook that left him draped on a bottom rope, near his own corner, barely 50 seconds into the first round. Dargan got up, but Santiago (14-2, 6 KOs) unloaded a barrage of power punches on a vulnerable Dargan (20-2, 10 KOs) as he backed into his own corner.
Referee Ricky Gonzalez stepped between them to stop the bout because Dargan wasn’t throwing punches back at Santiago.
The 27-year-old Santiago hadn’t fought in more than a year, not since Nunez, a Panamanian power puncher, stopped him in the ninth round last May 21 in Panama City. Santiago’s only previous loss was a 12-round unanimous decision to WBC world lightweight champion Devin Haney (27-0, 15 KOs), who was readying to square off against Australia’s George Kambosos Jr. (20-0, 10 KOs) in a full 135-pound championship unification fight on Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
The 36-year-old Dargan’s only loss before Saturday night was a 10-round unanimous decision to Canada’s Tony Luis in January 2015 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.