Boxing

Family calling for area pioneer

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published August 3, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - When 2-year-old Marissa comes squealing across the floor in his St. Petersburg home, begging for a kiss before he leaves for work, then screaming for another, David Santos knows he is making the right decision.

He knows his championship dreams are over, but the dreams he has for his daughter are just sprouting. He knows the future is more important than the past. And, especially, he knows his daughter needs her daddy, wits still intact.

"I'd love to fight for another title, but those aren't coming and I can't take fights for the money they offer you nowadays," Santos said. "It just isn't worth it. My daughter is the reason I wake up every morning. She's my life. You don't know that until you have them, but kids, they humble you a whole hell of a lot."

Saturday at the St. Pete Times Forum, barring any unlikely offers to fight for a title, the man who put St. Petersburg boxing on the map will fight for the last time.

Jeff Lacy, who headlines the fight card against Robin Reid, understands what Santos meant to boxing in Tampa Bay. They were stablemates for a few years at the St. Pete Boxing Club and have been friends ever since.

So when he finalized plans for Saturday, he immediately knew whom he wanted on the undercard.

"I had to have David Santos on there," Lacy said. "He was one of my heroes when I started out."

When boxing took off in St. Petersburg, Santos was the pilot. He makes his final approach against Tampa's Armando Cordoba with few regrets and leaves the sport the way he came into it: smiling and full of hope.

"My dream way of going out would be winning a world title, but then I guess you wouldn't go out," Santos said. "I'm honored to be on the undercard, though. It was one of my dreams to one day fight as a champion here. What Jeff is doing, that's what I wanted to do: win the title and bring it home."

Santos had his chances and fell short. But he never hated on the game because he owed it too much.

As a kid, he started boxing as a punishment for stealing. As others around him came and went - often to jail - Santos thrived and became the area's most accomplished amateur at the time.

"David Santos is to St. Petersburg what Al Lopez was to baseball in Tampa," ring announcer and local boxing expert Mark Beiro said.

The sport taught him discipline and kept him off the streets that were devouring his friends.

When he looks around now, he sees the same thing: kids coming and going, in one day and out the next, many looking for a reason to stay out of trouble.

Boxing saved Santos. Now Santos hopes to return the favor.

"When I'm done on the 6th, I'm going to take a little time off for myself," Santos said. "Then I want to eventually build boxing back up and focus on the young kids. I want to give back what (trainers) Jim McLoughlin and Dan Birmingham gave me."

Santos has always been a boxing oxymoron. He's overtly nice, has never been in trouble and has remained remarkably loyal.

He passed on opportunities to go elsewhere and work for bigger names. But as a pro, the Fourth Street Boxing Club has always been home and McLoughlin always his trainer.

"What a lot of people outside of boxing don't realize is that David Santos was a rarity," Beiro said. "He could have very easily sold out to the big promoters, and they wanted him, like Top Rank and Don King. But the price was too high to pay to have David turn his back on loyalty and the people who took care of him."

[Last modified August 3, 2005, 00:36:17]