By Ian S Palmer
The vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) featherweight title is on the line at the famous Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan this Wednesday, May 31st as hometown fighter Hayato Tsutsumi takes on Jeo Santisima of the Philippines.. The 12-round fight can be seen in Japan on Abema. Santisima last boxed in December when he dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Toshiki Shimomachi. Tsutsumi last saw action on New Year’s Eve when he beat Pete Apolinar via an eight-round unanimous decision.
The 27-year-old Santisima climbs through the ropes with a mark of 22-5 with 16 Ko’s and has boxed 116 rounds since making his ;pro debut in 2013 as a teenager following a short amateur career. The most noticeable stat concerning Santisima is the fact that 19 of his 22 wins have come by stoppage. He’s obviously got a lot of power in his punches and carries around a current knockout ratio of 70.4 per cent.
He’s best known for his fight with Emanuel Navarrete back in 2020 when he was stopped in the 11th round in a shot at the WBO Super Bantamweight Title. He also had a shot at the vacant WBO International Featherweight Belt in March, 2022 but was halted by Joet Gonzalez in the ninth round. Santisima’s other defeats came at the hands of Marlon Acilla by a six-round majority decision in his fourth contest and to Roniel Parcon by four-round unanimous decision in his pro debut as well as to Shimomachi in his last bout. .
Santisima has fallen short when stepping up in class and has wins against the likes of Jerry Nardo, Marco Demecillo, Junior Bajawa, Goodluck Mrema, Hiroshige Asawa, Master Suro and Kichang Kim. He stopped Likit Chane in the third round for the vacant WBO Oriental Super Bantamweight Title in June, 2018 and defended it against Uriel Lopez by 12-round unanimous decision five months later. Santisima stands 5-feet-6-inches tall with a 67.5-inch reach.
As for Hayato Tsutsumi, he’s another one of japan’s excellent young prospects at the age of 23. He enjoyed a fine international amateur career and won the 2016 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships in Russia in the flyweight division and competed at the 2021 World Championships. He made his pro debut in July, 2022 and beat Jhon Gemino via a wide eight-round unanimous decision. His second outing was against Pete Apolinar on New Year’s Eve and he won another wide unanimous eight-round decision after dropping Apolinar with a combination earlier in the fight.
Tsutsumi isn’t known as a power puncher though and hasn’t earned a stoppage in his first two fights. He is jumping in right at the deep end though as he’s not wasting time fighting four and six-rounders and could be going 12 rounds in just his third pro contest. He measures just over 5-feet-7-inches tall with an unlisted reach, which gives him a 1.5-inch edge in height on Santisima.
Prediction…
Santisima is a hard hitter so we may quickly find out how good Tsutsumi’s chin is. But when it comes to boxing skills I’ll give the edge to Tsutsumi and his power shouldn’t be underrated by Santisima especially considering Santisima has been stopped twice in his five defeats. He’s also lost two of his last three fights and is 1-1 in his past two outings which were both in Japan. This should be another good test for Tsutsumi and i think he’ll do enough to take the vacant OPBF belt with his slick skills.
