STEVEN LUEVANO vs MARIO SANTIAGO

Classy and consistent, Steven Luevano worked hard for his big break and now he is reaping the rewards. On Saturday he makes his third consecutive PPV appearance in defence of the WBO featherweight title when he meets Puerto Rican Mario Santiago in an all-southpaw fight that should produce skilful boxing on both sides.

Santiago, 29, is the puncher in the fight and is probably faster than Luevano, but the 27-year-old champion from La Puente, CA is one of those cool, calm and technically competent fighters who know how to win.

Also, even though he has stopped only 15 opponents in 36 fights Luevano isn’t exactly a powder-puff puncher. He crumpled Britain’s Nicky Cook with body punches when he won the title in London and he has dropped several opponents on his way to outpointing them, and in his only defeat he had the tough Martin Honorio on the canvas.

So, while Santiago is a dangerous hitter, he cannot simply go out and blaze through Luevano.

There seems to be an increased soundness and maturity about Luevano’s fighting. He really punished the strong and willing Antonio Davis towards the end of their fight last October, dropping him with a left hand in the 11th and bending him over with a left-hand drive to the body in the 12th.

In his last fight, even though Luevano was knocked down in the fourth round by Terdsak Jandaeng he rallied strongly and staggered the tenacious Thai with a left hand just before the round ended — in fact I thought it could have been called a knockdown as Terdsak’s glove seemed to touch the canvas.

Luevano showed excellent composure under pressure in each of his three title fights, but in each of them he was meeting fighters who came to him and he was basically able to make them miss and counter crisply.

What makes the fight with Santiago so interesting is that Luevano is meeting perhaps the most skilled and hardest hitting opponent he has ever faced. Even though Luevano is the favourite he faces an extremely stiff challenge.

Santiago was a member of the Puerto Rican team as an amateur and he always seemed on course to a world title fight. There was a setback, though, when he lost on a unanimous technical decision to veteran Hector Velazquez, who suffered cuts from head clashes. Santiago was outworked in that fight, when I think he was trying a little too hard to land big punches. It was a learning experience, and he came back nicely with a one-round win over the seasoned Edel Ruiz, who was dropped for the full count by a tremendous left hand to the body.

Risky though the fight is for Luevano, however, I think his experience in championship bouts will be of great benefit to him. He could well get caught and hurt by Santiago, but he has shown he can box his way through a crisis. Santiago is the more explosive of the two fighters but Luevano is steadier, and I think that Luevano’s steadiness will take him to a decision win in a competitive, entertaining fight.