Giovani “El Gallo de Oro” Santillan delivered a cool, calculated performance Saturday at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, upsetting the favored Alexis Rocha in their welterweight bout.
The San Diego boxer dropped Rocha, of Santa Ana, three times before referee Ray Corona stepped in, giving Santillan a knockout victory at 1:13 of the sixth round of the main event.
“I feel good. It was the outcome I was looking for,” said Santillan of the win. He remains undefeated with 31 wins and 17 knockouts. “You never know how a fight is going to turn out, especially with Alexis. He’s tough, he got up twice.
“I worked really hard with (trainer) Robert Garcia and my dad (co-trainer Memo Santillan).” Santillan also thanked Brainstorm Fitness and his home gym, The Bxing Club in the East Village, where he trains.
“Both of them told me similar things, from everything they see in camp. They knew what I had to work on, they were constantly reminding me to stick to the game plan, keep my hands up, keep moving,“ Santillan said.
Since his single previous loss, Rocha built himself into an aggressive, crowd-pleasing power puncher. Santillan is known for winning his fights with a methodical approach as steady as a metronome.
El Gallo was golden – his nickname means the Golden Rooster – turning the tables on Rocha to outslug the slugger with an impressive display of firepower. Santillan came at his opponent from the opening bell with chopping right hands, big hooks and zero respect for Rocha’s power.
By the second round, Rocha’s nose was bleeding. Santillan peppered him with short power jabs, never allowing him to get any offense going. After Corona warned Santillan about throwing low body shots in the fourth round, Garcia, his trainer, told Santillan to keep it up.
“This is your fight!” Garcia said.
Seconds later, Santillan dropped Rocha with a hard left. Hr got wearily to his feet, his face a bloody mess. With time remaining in the round, Santillan worked to end the fight.
Rocha fought back, but didn’t have enough steam to hold Santillan off. Santillan dug hard to Rocha’s body with repeated hooks, and Rocha suffered his second knockdown. By sheer will, he survived the round.
In round six, Santillan unloaded on Rocha, who finally sank to his knees out of exhaustion, and the fight was over. Rocha banged his gloves on the canvas in frustration, then got slowly to his feet to walk back to his corner.
Santillan’s face hardly had a mark after the fight. After his win, he never changed expression, quietly raising a fist in the air and acknowledging the crowd before returning to his corner, greeted by an elated Garcia and his father.
Santillan, the one-time club fighter who has slowly worked his way up the rankings, knew he was not the favorite. “It’s always a lot different when you have all these eyes on you. It’s mostly his fans, his supporters (at the Forum). That’s what makes boxing such a great sport,” said Santillan, thanking the fans and saying he was happy to perform for them.
With his second loss, Rocha is now 23-2 with 15 knockouts.
The bout was broadcast worldwide by the DAZN streaming channel.
