Santiago, Webster and Folly Score KO’s in Philly at NGA!
 By Ken Hissner, Doghouse Boxing (Feb 8, 2014)
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Milton “El Santo” Santiago, Jr |
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Promoter Greg Robinson’s Power Productions, with Renee’ Aiken, matchmaker had a near packed house at the National Guard Armory in North East Philadelphia. There was much anticipation with amateur sensation Milton “El Santo” Santiago, Jr. making his debut at the age of 17.
In the main event Philly Junior welter Milton “El Santo” Santiago, 1-0 (1 ) made his debut before many of his fans after a 197 bout amateur career stopping Moses Molina, 1-5 (0), of Bridgeton, NJ, at 1:16 of the 1st round of a scheduled 4. Top Referee Steve “SS” Smoger counted out Molina as he took the count on a knee.
“It was the left uppercut to the body that stopped him,” said Santiago. Another left hook seemed to catch Molina on the neck while going down. “We hope to have him fighting every 2 weeks,” said co-manager Eddie Woods. The other co-manager is Moz Gonzalez. They have had a partnership for years and it looks like they struck it rich with Santiago. The father, Milton Santiago, Sr. and Pedro Rivera worked the corner.
Super middleweight Derrick “Take It to the Bank” Webster, 15-0 (8), of Glassboro, NJ, stopped Julio Garcia, 6-6 (3), Rincon, PR, at1:19 of the 5th round. It was the first fight for Webster in just over a year. The much taller southpaw had a tough but out gunned opponent in front of him in Garcia who showed a lot of heart. He landed a straight right to the mid-section that seemed to set Webster off as he landed numerous punches having Garcia hurt in the 4th round. He would counter Garcia in the 5th before referee Clark stepped in and waved it off at 1:19 of the 5th of a scheduled 6.
Super bantamweight Manny Folly, 4-0 (3), of Philly, once again made a spectacular performance using double left hooks to body and head driving Michael Varela, 0-2, of Bethlehem, PA, into the ropes as referee Smoger wisely stopped it at 2:52 of the 1st round. Buddy Osborn was in the winner’s corner.
Frank Trader, 10-1-1 (2), of Philly and southpaw Israel Suarez, 4-3-2 (1), of Luquillo, PR, fought to a draw over 4 rounds. Trader outworked Suarez and seemed to land more punches in taking all 4 rounds. Suarez had welts under both eyes but held his own. Clark was the referee. Judge Grabowski had it 39-37 for Trader while the other 2 judges had it 38-38. DHB had it 40-36 Trader.
In what was expected to be the best matched fight of the night lived up to its expectations as Junior welter Anthony Flores, 10-4-2 (6), of Philly returned to action after a 3 year layoff to edge out Ramesis Gil, 8-8-5 (5), of the DR, over 6 well fought rounds. Flores boxed well in the first 2 rounds countering Gil who chased him.
In the 3rd and 4th the fight became more competitive as Gil got his licks in. The 5th and 6th were just as close as Gil seemed to hurt Flores just prior to the final bell. Referee was Smoger. Judge Potojai had it 58-56 as did DHB while Dali and Grabowski had it 59-55 all for Flores. Gil’s camp were not happy with the decision.
Featherweight Antonio Dubose, 4-0 (2), of W. Philly defeated Michael Haigood, 0-2 (0), of San Diego, CA, over 4 rounds. Dubose chased Haigood from the opening bell. In the 3rd round Dubose scored with a right to the chin and a delayed knockdown.
Haigood went into a survivor mode in the final round taking some good shots as Dubose continued head hunting with his right hand. Referee was Clark. Judge Pasquale had it 40-34 while the other 2 had it 40-35 as did DHB. “It’s hard fighting someone who didn’t seem to want to fight,” said Dubose. Buster Custus was the trainer of the winner with Joey Eye also in the corner handling cuts.
In the opening bout Junior welter Sultan Staton, 3-0 (2), of Philly, won all 4 rounds over southpaw Mike Eroza, 0-2 (0), of PR. After a cautious start Staton landed a couple of hard rights just before the bell. In the 3rd and 4th they mixed it up good with Staton getting the edge in both rounds. Smoger was the referee. All 3 judges had it 40-36 Staton as did DHB.
Ken Hissner responds to all his emails at: kenhissner@gmail.com |
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