By Damon Gonzalez

Welterweight Sammy Valentin from Tampa, Florida lost his WBO NABO Welterweight title Saturday night to Giovani Santillan by KO win (Click here for full report and photo gallery). All Star Boxing, Inc. director of operations Ruben De Jesus had the following comments on the outcome of the fight.

“Obviously it’s disappointing, but not a devastating loss coming into this fight,” said De Jesus. “It was clearly a tough fight for both young warriors. Did I think we would lose the fight? No, but clearly it is not a good feeling when you do.”

“Unfortunately, there is no rematch clause that was in the contract. We have a very good relationship with Kenneth R. Thompson and Alex Camponovo, but it is premature to say this early.”

“At All Star Boxing, we have a policy with our fighters, we never leave any soldier on the battlefield. We plan to regroup and get Valentin back into the ring in our show October 13th.”

“In regards to boxing folks that may say too fast too soon, Boxing is different it has changed a lot. You have networks involved and the financial aspect of the sport. My theory is if you have a fighter, in this case, who has close to 200 amateur fights, there is no reason you should not fight him. Our fighter was ranked #9 with the WBO welterweight division. We rolled the dice. The opportunity was very good. Sammy was in a great position to possibly collide with Jeff Horn next year. Boxing is about chess moves, there were too many positives revolved around the fight and we strongly believe Valentin will recover.”