Santig stages ‘Battle of Bangkok’

Bangkok-based Filipino promoter Brico Langbay Santig is staging a megabuck show on Saturday in Thailand featuring 48 boxers from 28 countries.

Four Filipino fighters — Elmo Traya, Rocky Bactol, Lemuel Kenneth de Barbo and Leonard Porres III — are seeing action in the slugfest dubbed “Battle of Bangkok” at the World Siam Stadium.

“I think this is the world’s first,” Santig said from the Thai capital where he also runs a busy gym.

Traya battles Apinun Khosong of Thailand in a ten-round super-welterweight duel while Bactol meets Michael Roos of the United Kingdom in a six-round super-middleweight clash.

Lemuel Kenneth de Barbo, meanwhile, locks horns with Wichai Khamson in a six-round super-feather contest and Leonard Porres III squares off with Suriya Kaimanee, also from Thailand, in a six-round super-fly showdown.

Aside from the Philippines, Thailand and the UK, other countries represented include Kazakhstan, Russia, Singapore, China, Canada, Ghana and the United States.

Santig is a mainstay in Thailand promotion as he also handles the affairs of many of the Philippines’ brightest world title hopefuls including Jayson Vayson, who shoots for three world title belts on 20 September in Indio, California.

DAZN, one of the world’s leading boxing show producers, is joining hands with Santig’s Highland Boxing Promotions, in putting up this weekend’s big bash.

“I do monthly shows here in Thailand,” added Santig, whose main boxing assembly line is located in the Baguio and La Trinidad areas of Benguet.