December 3, 2005
TOKYO, JAPAN-Filipino southpaw Rev Santillan (22-2-1, 16 KOs), 147, impressively regained the OPBF welterweight belt as he overcame the retaliation of defending champ, WBC #9 ranked Japanese lefty Kazuhiko Hidaka (22-5, 16 KOs), 147, and finally exploded a coup-de-grace to finish him at 0:59 of the eighth round in a scheduled twelve on Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan. It was truly the OPBFfs Fight of the Year, as they put on a total war from the hot outset to the dramatic end. Itfs a grudge fight since Hidaka dethroned Santillan via lopsided fourth round TKO here last March. The Filipino then wasnft at his best physically and mentally because his sweetheart had suffered a cancer and he couldnft concentrate on training in preparation for his defense against Hidaka. Determined and desperate this time, Santillan almost floored the champ with his furious opening attack in the first round. The Filipino was in command in the first three rounds, shaking him up with accurate one-two combinations. Hidaka, however, came back hard and dominated the fourth through sixth by battering him with a flurry of punches. Santillan looked on the verge of a KO defeat, but the tide turned again in the seventh, when the Filipino suffered a bad gash but fought back to have the champ quite groggy in the closing seconds. Santillan went for a kill in the fatal eighth, and caught the fading champ with a southpaw left uppercut followed by a vicious right hook. Down he went. Hidaka barely regained his feet, but wobbled so badly that Thai referee Pinit Prayadsab wisely tolled a fatal ten. Then the dethroned and dejected ex-champ collapsed prone for a while to show his absorption of bad punishment. The crowd gave a standing ovation to the victor despite the home-townerfs defeat due to the dramatic come-from-behind knockout. After the seventh, all the scorecards of scoring ref Pinit, Alex Vidal (Philippines) and Nobuaki Uratani (Japan) were identical: 67-66 for Santillan. The lanky Filipino lefty thus gained the OPBF 147-pound belt for the third time, as he previously regained it from Hiroshi Watanabe and recaptured it again.
Japanese #4 middle Fukutaro Ujiie (8-4, 3 KOs), 160, scored a beautiful one-punch stoppage over #6 super-welter Kazuhiro Isotani (10-8, 5 KOs), 160, at 2:51 of the fifth round in a scheduled eight. Ex-world 154-pound champ Koichi Wajima, Isotanifs manager whose daughter married with him, promptly threw in the towel to save the flattened son-in-law. Feifong Kogure (18-6-1, 7 KOs), 139.75, was awarded a technical decision over Japanese #7 super-light Hiroyuki Ioku (12-12-3, no KO), 139.75, due to the loserfs bad bleeding at 0:27 of the sixth in a scheduled eight. Takanori Kariya (21-3, 5 KOs), 134.5, earned a unanimous nod (78-74, 78-76 and 77-76) over Koji Iida (9-4-1, 1 KO), 134.5, over eight.
Promoter: Shin Nihon Kimura Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Santillan-Hidaka title bout).
(12-3-05)