Daniel Santos

Daniel Santos Peña (born October 10, 1975) is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2009.

As an amateur, Santos represented Puerto Rico in international events, including the 1990 and 1992 Junior World Championships, Pan American Boxing Tournament, Goodwill Games, 1995 Pan American Games and the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal at welterweight.

Santos was raised in a family where boxing was a common profession, with his father Paquito Santos being a trainer and his brother Edgardo Santos being a former professional boxer.

Early in his life Daniel Santos was enrolled in a school specialized in sports, located in a facility designed for the training of Olympic athletes in Puerto Rico.

He eventually graduated from this institution and continued a career in boxing.

Santos began to compete in the international amateur circuit in 1990.

This year he won the bronze medal in the World Junior Championships that were organized in Lima, Peru.

Two years later he competed in the World Junior Championships that were celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he won the bronze medal, for the second straight time in a competition with worldwide scope.

On 1993 he debuted in the adult division when he competed in the Panamerican Boxing championship.

This event took place in Salinas, Puerto Rico.

Santos won the gold medal on this tournament.

In 1994 Santos represented Puerto Rico in the Goodwill Games that took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Here, Santos finished third in his division and won the bronze medal.

His next international participation was in the 1995 Pan American games celebrated in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he won the silver medal.

The result of the championship fight was controversial, when David Reid won the fight by decision after Santos scored a knockdown during the course of the contest.

Santos represented Puerto Rico once again at the 1996 Summer Olympics organized in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here he competed in three fights, he defeated two adversaries by unanimous decision, these were: Kabil Lahsen of Morocco with score of 16–4 and Nariman Atayev of Uzbekistan with a score of 28–15.

In his first fight he defeated Ernest Atangana Mboa of Cameroon by RSC (referee stopping contest) at the 2:54 mark of the first round.

His last fight was against Oleg Saitov of Russia where he lost by points with score of 11–13.

He finished the competition in the third global place and won the bronze medal, with this medal Santos became the sixth Puerto Rican boxer to win an Olympic medal.

Daniel finished his amateur career compiling a record of 117 fights won and three defeats.

Santos debuted as a professional on September 28, 1996, against Andre Hawthorne in Fort Worth, Texas, in a fight where he won by technical knockout in the first round.

Following this fight Santos compiled a record of twenty-one victories, one defeat and one draw before competing for a world championship.

During this period Santos boxed in the welterweight division, his adversaries in this stage of his career included: Bernard Gray, Miguel Gonzalez, former world title challenger Fidel Avendano, Juan Caslos Rodriguez, William Ruiz and Humberto Rodriguez.

The first draw in Santos' career occurred in a fight with Jose Luis Verdugo, that was part of a card that took place in El Cajon, California.

On May 7, 1999, Santos competed against Kofi Jantuah in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jantuah won this contest by technical knockout in the fifth round, marking Santos' first defeat in the professional circuit.

Santos fought Ahmed Kotiev for the World Boxing Organization's welterweight championship on November 27, 1999.

Kotiev retained the championship by split decision.

The scores of the judges were 115-113 and 115–113 in favor of Kotiev and 117–111 in favor of Santos.

The fight was subsequently described as a "competitive and highly entertaining fight" and the result was reviewed as a "disputed" close split decision.

He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBO welterweight title from 2000 to 2001, the WBO light middleweight title from 2002 to 2005, and the WBA light middleweight title from 2008 to 2009.

On May 6, 2000, these two boxers competed in a rematch of their previous fight.

In the fifth round Santos won the fight by knockout, in the process winning his first professional championship, the World Boxing Organization's championship.

On July 21, 2000, Santos defended the welterweight championship against Giovanni Parisi in Calabria, Italy.

Santos won the fight by knockout in the fourth round.

Following the fight Parisi stated that the welterweight championship was always his interest as he wanted to become the first Italian to win world championships in three different divisions.

In this interview he claimed that his training prior to the fight was insufficient.

Giovanni said: "We battled in Reggio Calabria, a coin toss from Sicily, and he KOed me during the 4th round. I have no excuses. I didn't train properly."

His second defense was against Neil Sinclair in Yorkshire, Great Britain.