AUSTRALIAN BOXER PULLS OUT OF WBF TITLE FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 09 Oct 2007
A strange thing happened last Saturday in Australia when the opponent of Filipino Ruben Santillanosa, Matt Powell, pulled out at the last minute from a WBF Australasian super featherweight title bout at the Darebin Sports and Leisure Center in Melbourne, without any explanation.
WBF president Mick Croucher said they conducted the weigh in and ?everything was signed on Friday and we were set to go for the Saturday title fight when I was contacted by the promoter at 3:00 p.m. stating that Powell had called him to say he was not fighting.?
Croucher said he personally called the boxer several times but his calls were unanswered. The WBF president said that since Powell didn?t show up Santillanosa fought light welterweight Eric Anaba over six, two minute rounds and scored a unanimous decision with two of the three judges scoring the fight 60-54 and the third judge 50-55 all for the Filipino.
Croucher said both Santillanosa as well as the fans were disappointed that the title fight didn't push through.
Santillanosa who is 22 years old improved his record with the victory to 8 wins as against 14 losses and 1 draw with 5 knockouts according to boxrec.com while Powel who pulled outl was 9-3-2 with 3 knockouts which once again raised the issue of mismatches. The record also shows that Santillanosa weighed in at 125.62 pounds which was heavier than Powell who came in at 125.18 while the super featherweight limit is 130 pounds.
Santillanosa and Anaba eventually fought as junior welterweights. The Filipino weighed 137 1/2 pounds while Anaba was 1391/2 pounds.
Santillanosa who regularly fights as a super bantamweight was coming off a second round KO loss to South Korea?s Yoo Shin Kim last May 19 while Powell won the Australian featherweight title last February 17 when referee Alan Simpson disqualified undefeated Mohamed Elomar for persistent low blows.
The two had earlier fought to a no contest in the third round of a ten round bout when referee Cyril Cairns stopped the fight because both fighters were reportedly unruly.
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