Walter Santibanes waited for confirmation on his wait before he clapped his hands and punched his fist in the air as if he just won his first championship.
Life has been just grand for the streaking featherweight, who hit the scale at a stacked 124.4 pounds for yet another opportunity to ruin the career of a rising prospect. His opponent for the occasion is unbeaten Jose Tito Sanchez, who was 124.8 pounds for their Golden Boy Fight Nights on DAZN main event Thursday evening from Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.
Santibanes made a big splash in his series debut, which came in his most recent outing. The 33-year-old Phoenix native dominated unbeaten local favorite Manny ‘Gucci’ Flores over ten rounds in their June 8 main event at this very venue. The win extended Santibanes’ current 11-fight unbeaten streak.
He is now assigned his second straight unbeaten foe and third fight in a row where he enters as the underdog.
Sanchez has scored early knockouts in each of his two fights on the year. The 24-year-old from Cathedral City, California is coming off his most impressive win to date, a third-round knockout of Carlos Caraballo on July 12 on the road in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Below are the weights for the full undercard.
Eric Priest (11-0, 7KOs), Los Angeles, 161.4 pounds vs. Paul Mendez (21-4-2, 11KOs), Las Vegas, 160 pounds—8 rounds, middleweight
Jorge Chavez (8-0, 6KOs), San Diego via Tijuana, 123.6 pounds vs. Jerson Ortiz (17-9, 8KOs), Managua, Nicaragua, 123.8 pounds—8 rounds, junior featherweight
Ricardo Ruvalcaba (10-0-1, KOs), Ventura, California, 141.6 pounds vs. Irving Macias (15-3, 10KOs), Monterrey, Mexico, 142 pounds—8 rounds, junior welterweight
Justin Figueroa (6-0, 5KOs), Atlantic City, New Jersey, 153.4 pounds vs. Jerome Clayton (3-2-1, 3KOs), Metarie, Louisiana, 154 pounds—4 rounds, junior middleweight
Fabian Guzman (2-0, 2KOs), Orange, California, 155 pounds vs. Rueben Johnson (0-4, 0KOs), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 153 pounds—4 rounds, junior middleweight
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox