Spence vs. Crawford undercard results, highlights: Alexandro Santiago upsets Nonito Donaire to claim title

Age appears to have finally caught up with Filipino legend Nonito Donaire. The former unified champion dropped a hard fought decision to Alexandro Santiago on the undercard of Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford in Las Vegas on Saturday, awarding the WBC bantamweight crown to the native of Mexico.

The Filipino champion got every benefit of the doubt from the judges, but in the end there was no denying Santiago (28-3-5, 14 KOs), who won via scores of 116-112 (x2) and 115-113 to become a champion for the first time in his career. This was the first time that Donaire (42-8, 8 KOs) has ever lost back-to-back fights since he turned pro in 2001. He also lost to Naoya Inoue via vicious second-round knockout in their June 2022 rematch after Donaire managed to break Inoue’s orbital bone in their first meeting despite coming up short on the cards.

The action started out in highly competitive fashion, and the first fight-changing moment went to Donaire. Early in the third round, Donaire unleashed one of his patented left hooks, which seemed to stun Santiago and opened up a cut over the his right eye. He was unable to capitalize in any significant way, however, and Santiago was completely recovered by the start of the next round. 

And from there, it was largely all Santiago save for a head clash in the sixth round that opened up a nearly identical gash over his left eye. Santiago’s work rate — 609 punches thrown to 495 — seemed to overwhelm Donaire at times, and by the final few rounds the Mexican was firing and landing at will. 

An emotional Santiago, who idolized Donaire coming up as a young fighter, was in tears after finally realizing his dream. 

“It’s so hard to explain this moment right now,” Santiago said through a translator. “All the work we put in for just this moment, it’s great to win this title. It’s been an honor to fight such a legend like Nonito and he just told me ‘thank you, thank you for giving me this great fight.'”

Despite the set back, Donaire said he doesn’t want to retire, but will have to discuss the matter with his wife and trainer, Rachel. 

“I will continue because I love the sport so much,” Donaire said. “But the thing I told my wife, and who has the word whether I have it or not and stuff like that. So we just gotta go back to the locker room and talk about it and see where we go from there. I felt good, there were some things that just didn’t trigger. I didn’t pull the trigger, and that was my biggest problem.”

Asked if that was a result of his age, Donaire, protested. 

“I say hell no to that.”

The result, and his face, red and swollen from Santiago’s unrelenting combinations in the later rounds, said otherwise. 

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