RENE Santiago is the new WBO light-flyweight champion after beating Shokichi Iwata on points. There was some language barrier confusion as the decision was read out. Iwata looked puzzled when the referee raised his hand.
Unperturbed, Santiago revelled in his win. The ESPN commentary team later confirmed the scores of 118-110, 117-111 and a 116-112 in favour of the new champion. Santiago boxed well, but the scores did feel a bit wide.
This clash of styles was always likely to be entertaining and things heated up in the third round as Iwata closed the distance. Iwata had picked up the vacant WBO 108-pound crown with a knockout victory last year over Jairo Noriega.
This was the first defence of that belt, against Santiago, who was the last person to (unsuccessfully) challenge Jonathan Gonzalez for the belt before the Puerto Rican vacated and moved up to flyweight.
To add to the triangular intrigue, Gonzalez made a 2022 defence of the title, beating Iwata, in what was the Tokyo man’s sole defeat coming in here. Santiago was about to add to that statistic. Back in the Kokugikan ring, Iwata enjoyed a solid fifth round as Santiago briefly wobbled under pressure.
Iwata took a couple of rounds to probe before a ninth-round assault that Santiago weathered. The visitor was boxing well off the back foot, soaking up the bombs and responding with return fire. It turned out that the judges preferred his sharpshooting backfoot display of boxing, awarding the Puerto Rican a unanimous decision victory.
Improving his record to 14-4 (9 KOs), the new champion said he would sit down with his team and decide on his next move after a well-earned rest. Meanwhile, it’s back to the drawing board for Iwata, 14-2 (11 KOs).
