Jovanie Santiago is ready to begin adjusting to fame.
A career spent in relative obscurity will take on a new dynamic when the unbeaten Puerto Rican junior welterweight steps up to face former four-division titlist Adrien Broner. The two collide this Saturday, atop a Showtime telecast live from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The bout will mark the first outside of P.R. or Dominican Republic for Santiago (14-0-1, 10KOs), who insists this opportunity was long overdue.
“I knew I needed big fights to become a contender,” Santiago told BoxingScene.com. “This is my chance to not only shock Adrien Broner but shock the world.”
The fight marks a quick turnaround for Santiago, who enters on the heels of a 1st round knockout of unbeaten Juan Zegarra last December in Santo Domingo, D.R. The surge in activity is a far cry from what the 31-year old has generally experienced over the course of a spread-out 14-year career, which includes a six-year gap when a lack of steady fights forced him to focus on a full-time job in order to provide for his family.
Santiago has toppled two unbeaten foes as well as former 140-pound titlist DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley since returning to the ring in 2014. What his résumé lacks is the type of notoriety that will come with his showdown this weekend versus Cincinnati’s Broner (33-4-1, 24KOs), who fights for the first time since a 12-round loss to Manny Pacquiao in their secondary welterweight title fight more than two years ago.
“This is the type of fight I was looking for after I beat Ivan Cano (in March 2019), who was a former world-ranked contender,” notes Santiago. “The fight with Corley was intense, one where I knew I needed a few more fights to get more experience.”
The win over Cano was followed by a 9th round stoppage of Argentina’s Gustavo David Vittori in Nov. 2019, only for Santiago’s 2020 campaign to go cold only due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Juan Orengo, Santiago’s local promoter in P.R. managed to get him on a card in D.R. presented by Shuan Boxing last December, with the urging to immediately return to the gym and the promise of 2021 being the year he emerge as a world class contender.
“I fought on December but at the beginning of January I found out about the fight with Broner as a possibility,” notes Santiago. “I was already maintaining my weight since my promoter. Juan Orengo told me that great things were coming—and they did.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
