Panov Prevails, Beats Santillan For UBO International Welterweight Title

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APRIL 7, 2023 / BY BY UBO PRESS OFFICER

Argentinian Victoriano Antonio Santillan grabbed the big opportunity when original co-challenger Edmond Zefi was ruled out following a car-accident, saving the main event of a huge show at the Arena Armeets presented by Max Fight Promotions.

In front of nearly 3000 spectators, and broadcast live on Diema Sports in Bulgaria and world-wide on FITE, it was a hard-fought and entertaining fight. Santillan had certainly not just come for the pay-day, but Panov had another gear and landed the cleaner shots.

Panov started the fight strong, and hurt Santillan with a body-shot early in the first round. He followed up, and floored the Argentinian with a shot to the liver, and for a moment it looked like the fight could be over before it really got started.

But the brave and game Santillan beat the count of referee Antonio Grigorov, and somehow managed to make it through the round. Panov was in clear control in the next few rounds, but not able to land anything as significant as in round one.

In the second half of the fight Santillan started to find some success of his own, and did his best to shift the momentum, but only landed single shots. Panov was never really unsettled, and in the end there was no doubt that he was the winner on the cards.

Judges Tzacho Andreikovski, Georgi Ivanov and Veselin Petkov scored the fight 80-72, 80-73 and 80-71.

With the victory, 26-year-old Panov improved his professional record to 24-3 (11). Santillan, fighting out of Buenos Aires, drops to 10-6-2 (7).