Tito Mercado faces Victoriano Santillan on Feb. 10, headlines MarvNation card
Unbeaten junior welterweight Ernesto ‘Tito’ Mercado continues to stay active.
Mercado, one of the top prospects in boxing, will face Victoriano Santillan on February 10, it was confirmed to The Ring over the weekend. The eight-round bout will take place at the C. Robert Lee Activity Center in Hawaiian Gardens, California.
The Mercado-Santillan fight will headline a nine-bout MarvNation Promotions card, which will stream live on their application (MarvNationTV, 9 ET/ 6 PT).
Mercado has been very active, fighting five times in 2023. Because of his success against very modest opposition, Mercado was a finalist for Ring Magazine’s Prospect of the Year award.
The 22-year-old Mercado (13-0, 12 knockouts), who resides in nearby Pomona, last fought on November 11, stopping former fringe junior lightweight and lightweight contender Jeremia Nakathila in the second round. In his previous fight on August 26, Mercado scored a first round knockout victory against Paraguay’s Carlos Portillo.
One of his fights last year was a knockout win against former world title challenger Henry ‘Hank’ Lundy on April 15.
Mercado also fought five times in 2022. All but two of his pro fights have taken place in the Los Angeles area.
Santillan (11-6-2, 8 KOs), who resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina, stopped once-beaten prospect Benjamin Dubois in the sixth round of his last fight on May 13. Santillan was down on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
The victory over Dubois took place over five weeks after Santillan lost a one-sided decision to fringe welterweight contender Yosif Panov.
Also on the MarvNation Promotions card, unbeaten lightweight prospect Mathias Radcliffe (6-0-1, 4 KOs) of Reseda, California will square off against Christian Lorenzo (3-5, 1 KO) of Los Angeles in a six-round bout.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at santio89@yahoo.com
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