Simon Brown Is Seeking to Fight With Marlin Starling

After beating challenger Luis Santana, Simon Brown is still the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion and he still wants to fight the only man who has beat him in the ring.

Thursday night, after a unanimous decision over a surprisingly tough Santana, Brown was pushing for a match with Marlon Starling, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion.

“Get Starling in the ring. Let us prove who is the best welterweight,” he said.

The title fight was brought to Springfield to draw the attention of Starling, who lives less than an hour away in Hartford, Conn. But promoters aren’t at all close to agreement on money.

Starling agreed during the weekend to fight IBF middleweight champion Michael Nunn for $850,000. But if money matters can be arranged, Brown and Starling could meet next spring or early summer.

Brown made it clear before the fight that he was looking beyond Santana to the man who gave him the only loss in his 31-1 record.

Starling was at the fight and stepped briefly into the ring before the main event.

“I’m here to watch a good night of boxing,” he said outside the ring.

Brown was in control for much of the fight, taking charge in the fourth round with several telling combinations and double left hooks.

After the fight, Brown said he hurt his hand in the third round. “I hit Santana on the top of the head with a right and I thought I hit a brick wall,” he said. Brown said he was advised to throw the kind of punches that would earn him a decision.

Santana, who speaks broken English, said he was happy to have gone the full 12 rounds. He said he was fighting well but in the second round his eyes began to close.

Santana, both eyes swollen nearly shut by the end of the bout, fought hard, landing a flurry of punches in the 12th round. But the challenger’s punches were mostly looping overhand rights that glanced off Brown.

The fight began with a tentative round and then Santana came on strong in the second. Some of the best fighting came in the fifth and 11th rounds as Brown found his range and pummeled Santana with combinations.

It was the fifth time Brown had defended his title since winning it from Tyrone Trice in April 1988.

Santana, 36-12-2, had scored 29 knockouts. His big victory was an upset over Jorge Maysonet this year. Thursday night’s match was the biggest fight in Springfield since Dec. 9, 1978, when soon-to-be champion Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Armando Muniz in six rounds.

The fight, broadcast by the USA cable network, was refereed by Matt Mullaney of South Hadley. Attendance was estimated at 2,400.

Scoring was 119-110 by judge Don O’Neil; 120-108 by judge Harold Gomes and 120-105 by judge Bob McCoy.