INGLEWOOD, California – Everything in the air Saturday night at the fabled Kia Forum had an old-school feel to it as Alexis Rocha and Giovani Santillan got set to square off for their welterweight scrap.
Santa Ana’s Rocha and San Diego’s Santillan were both battling for Southern California turf and supremacy, similar to the scintillating slugfests that once took place at the since-closed Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.
The Mexican-American fighters were also trying to scratch and claw their way atop one of the sport’s glamor divisions currently ruled by Terence Crawford, hoping to somehow break through for a title shot.
The main event fight – a much-welcomed anomaly presented by rival promoters Golden Boy and Top Rank – delivered a crowd-pleasing contest for as long as it lasted, and it was Santillan who rose to the occasion by rocking and dropping Rocha three times en route to a sixth-round knockout win.
Rocha was dropped twice in the fifth round and never recovered in the sixth, as the scorching hot Santillan superbly closed the show in style.
Referee Ray Corona immediately waved off the fight at the 1:13 mark in the sixth after a fluffy of left uppercuts and right hooks from Santillan (32-0, 17 KOs) left (23-2, 15 KOs) crumbled on the canvas for a third time.
“I feel good. It was the outcome I was looking for. I worked really hard with my team. Rocha was tough,” said Santillan. “From here, we’re going up.”
Santillan outslugged Rocha 167 to 110 and threw 367 total punches – 93 more than Rocha.
Plenty of leather was flying from the onset, as both fighters dug in their boots, stood their ground, and refused to back down from one another.
Rocha looked strong in the beginning but by the third round, his nose was busted. Santillan saw blood and dialed up the pressure, which started to really show by the fifth as Rocha’s face was covered in crimson.
Santillan scored his first knockdown in the fifth courtesy of a left uppercut-right hook combination.
Rocha fought back and rallied remarkably, landing a hard left that head sweat flying off Santaillan’s scalp.
Rocha fell again in the middle of a Santaillan flurry but Corona ruled it a slip. Corona got involved once more right after, warning Santillan for an illegal blow, momentarily halting the action, and pumping the brakes on Santillan’s momentum.
But Santillan stepped on the gas and came back faster and more furious, unleashing a mesmerizing sequence of six straight hooks to drop Rocha once again.
The 31-year-old, Robert Garcia-trained Santillan connected with 30 power punches compared to just eight returned from Rocha in the fifth. He closed the fight in the sixth by outlanding Rocha 15 to seven, never leaving a doubt about who was the deserving victor between undefeated up-and-comers.
With the win, Santillan better positions himself for a 147-pound title shot once the division’s picture opens up following current undisputed champion Crawford’s reign. Crawford is next set to face Errol Spence Jr. in a rematch that will either take place at 147 or 154 pounds, but his days at welterweight are all but over after his chapter with Spence closes.
Heading into the fight, Rocha was ranked No. 1 by the WBO, and Santillan was ranked No. 5, and surely Santillan will be better positioned once the sanctioning body next releases their updated rankings.
