AS THE attention of most Cebuanos are focused on US fights, Cebu-based Rev “Gentle Giant” Santillan, who has been out of the limelight for quite sometime, slipped out of the country unnoticed.
The 5-foot-11 hard punching Iloilo-native fighter is aiming to regain his Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) welterweight belt next Saturday in Japan against the reigning regional king Taisei Muramoto.
Santillan and his trainer Brix Flores left the country for Tokyo, Japan in the first week of June to complete their training at the Teikken Gym.
Santillan has lost the belt three times now but managed to reclaim the title in a rematch following two of those losses. But it will be a lot difficult now as Muramoto, who stands two inches shorter, is fresh from a two-fight streak that includes a seventh round TKO over Hiroshi Yamaguchi, where he won the WBC affiliated regional belt in September last year.
Yamaguchi wrested the belt from Santillan by a controversial split decision win in April last year but lost it to Muramoto on his first defense.
The Japanese champion carries a 20-7-1, win-loss-draw record with only nine wins by knockouts. Santillan, on the other hand, has a more impressive record of 23-3-1, with 16 KOs.
Santillan first won the OPBF 147-pound belt by beating Suk-Hyun Yun of South Korea back in January 2001 at the Cebu City Waterfront Hotel. He made three successful title defenses before losing it to Hiroshi Watanabe in October 2002.
He then reclaimed the belt on his third meeting with Watanabe by a split decision win in April 2004
