Santana Wins Comeback in Paradise

In the main event at the Paradise Theatre in the Bronx, New York, last Thursday, Puerto Rico’s Edgar ‘El Chamaco’ Santana, fighting out of New York City, made a successful comeback at welterweight after three years out of the ring with a second round stoppage of Robert ‘The Wolf’ Jones of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The card was promoted by Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing and televised by gofightlive.

Joe DeGuardia’s latest boxing card was unique in that one side of the ring featured six fighters who did not have a losing record, fighting out of the red corner. On the other side of the ring, six fighters who did not have a winning record were fighting out of the blue corner. Still, red did not win all six bouts, as one fighter who was making his professional debut lost a unanimous decision to a more experienced 6-6 fighter out of the blue corner.

Neither Santana nor Jones cut off the ring, and Santana, suffering from ring rust, was force to chase his opponent around in circles for one round. Jones, demonstrating trial horse status, moved right and fronted a good defense with his gloves up high, but showed almost no offense. Santana worked the left jab consistently, mixing his jab with occasional power shots to the body of Jones to easily win round one.

In the second round, the same pattern emerged, when Suddenly Jones settled onto the ropes near a corner. Santana attacked Jones with a flurry, including an overhand left-right-left combination to the head which sent Jones to the canvas sideways in an awkward fall. Jones beat the count, claiming a slip, but returned to the ropes again, where Santana trapped him in a corner and administered him a senseless beating. Referee Shada Murdaugh was then forced to stop the contest at 1:20 of the second round.

Santana, now 25-3 (15), was making his first ring appearance since April 2008, when he came off the canvas twice in the eighth round to score a ten round majority decision of Josesito Lopez in bout held in Miami, Florida. Jones, 8-9-1 (3), has won only two of his last 13 bouts, though he did defeat Pete Cantu in a junior middleweight bout in his native Michigan in his last bout this past December 2010.

Result: Edgar Santana TKO2 Robert Jones, Welterweights
Time of the stoppage: 1:20 of the second round

Celebrities at ringside included: Edwin Viruet, who fought Roberto Duran twice; former IBF world light welterweight champion Paulie ‘Magic Man’ Malignaggi; commentator Harold Lederman of HBO; heavyweight Monte Barrett, providing television commentary at ringside; welterweight Aaron ‘Superman’ Davis; former WBA light heavyweight champion Lou Del Valle; and light heavyweight Elvir Muriqi.

Undercard Bout Results
Issouf Kinda KO3 Jorge Ruiz, Welterweights (2:55)
Stephon Owusu UD4 Juan Perez, Welterweights
Stivens Bujaj TKO1 Chucky Dillard, Cruiserweights (0:55)
Emmanuel Gonzalez TKO1 Jacob Thornton, Lightweights (1:40)
Jason Escalera TKO2 Mustafa Johnson , Super Mdddleweights (1:13)