Boxing Challenge: Santillan beats up Rocha

     The boxing weekend saw one title contender dominate a faded former champion and a mandatory challenger take a defeat and a beating along with their loss.

A mild surprise in the evening from the former Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California as Giovani Santillan "crossed the street" from Top Rank to face Golden Boy's Alexis Rocha on a GBP/DAZN card and viciously knocked Rocha out in six rounds. 

Rocha entered the fight as the number one WBO contender so had he won the fight, Rocha would have remained in a position for a chance at Terence Crawford or more likely fight for the title vacated by Crawford eventually.

I had trouble picking this fight but I picked Rocha mainly because he was the harder puncher while Santillan hadn't shown nearly as much power in his past performances, so the surprise wasn't that Santillan won, it was how he won by coming right at the fighter that was expected to be the stronger man and ran him over.

I thought Santillan's best chance was boxing from the outside, slowing down the fight, and winning a less-than-thrilling decision but he broke Rocha's nose in the first round, walked him down, and battered him throughout.

Rocha had his occasional moment but the fight was one-sided with Santillan knocking Rocha down twice in the fifth round before the final knockdown to finish the fight in round six.

Santillan is still promoted by Top Rank, so he'll return to them with the likely position that Rocha held with the WBO as one of the participants for the eventual vacant title.

As for Rocha, he will have to start over, and after a physical battering, it is fair to wonder about Rocha's future as a contender and he will at minimum have to work his way back up the ratings.

The earlier main event on DAZN wasn't nearly as interesting from Liverpool, England as junior welterweight Jack Catterall cruised past aging Jorge Linares via unanimous decision.

Catterall stunned Linares in round five but couldn't finish him and the remainder of the bout saw Catterall outbox Linares, who announced his retirement after the fight.

I scored Catterall the winner 119-109, which was a larger margin than the official scorecards of 117-111 and 116-112 times two.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 160 Pts (1)

Ramon Malpica: 147 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 109 Pts  (1)