By Rey Danseco
REV “Gentle Giant” Santillan came home to Cebu, an ordinary boxer again after he lost the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) welterweight title in his first title defense Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.
Santillan suffered another split decision loss when his unbeaten 7th ranked challenger Hiroshi Yamaguchi earned the nod of two of the three judges after their 12 round confrontations at the fabled Korakuen Hall.
Scoring referee Anek Thongtongkam of Thailand decided the winner after he awarded the final round to the Japanese for his final tally, 114-113 in favor of the Yamaguchi.
Japan’s Ukrid Sarasas and the Philippines’ Alex Vidal saw the winner in their scorecards for their compatriots, 115-113 and 115-112, respectively.
Santillan, a Cebu-based native of Jaro town in Iloilo, scored the only knockdown in the fight when his hard lefty punch floored Yamaguchi in the 11th round.
The Filipino champ pressed the action but failed to stop the Japanese who barely withstand the bombarment.
Both boxers were both bleeding from a cut in early round. Santillan, who is rated as the world’s No. 11 by the World Boxing Council, suffered a slash over his left eyebrow in the second while in the third, Yamaguchi got a cut over his left optic.
Santillan dropped his stock to 22-3-1 win-loss-draw with 16 knockouts while Yamaguchi improved to 15-0-1, 11 KOs.
Santillan is now called the three-time OPBF champion after he lost the same belt for 147-pound class with split decision to Hiroshi Watanabe in a rematch in October 2002.
On April 25, 2005, Santillan regained the belt from Watanabe with the same fashion but lost to Kazuhiko Hidaka in his second defense with 4th round KO in March 2005. In a rematch nine months later, the Filipino regained the belt by avenging with a KO win in round 8 over Hidaka.
