ALEJANDRO Santiago denied Nonito Donaire Jr a stab at history on Sunday (Manila time), pulling off a unanimous decision to become the new WBC bantamweight champion at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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The younger and faster Mexican outboxed the 40-year-old Filipino for 12 rounds in winning his very first world title.
Santiago, who once drew with former IBF super-featherweight champion Jerwin Ancajas, beat Donaire by scores of 115-113, 116-112, 116-112.
The Mexican is five inches shorter than the five-division world champion but was 13 years younger and showed it the way he dominated with speed and combinations.
Donaire was coming off a two-round TKO loss to Naoya Inoue and was looking to become the oldest bantamweight champion in history, but his power punches came few and far between in what could be his farewell fight.
Santiago improved to 28-3-5 while dealing Donaire the eighth loss in 50 fights in a Hall of Fame career.
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