[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/12/67 Thursday
Portland, ME, USA
Felix Santiago – MW (12-24-5) vs. Jimmy McDermott – LHW (21-9-3)

Felix SAntiago - Puerto Rico, Rating 1
Middleweight 1960-67

12 wins / 25 losses / 5 draws / 1 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Santiago managed to finish most of his fights, suffering only 4 stoppages, two of those late, in his career. Unfortunately he had little punch himself it would appear.

Throughout his career he fought up and down the ranks between welterweights through light heavyweights, middleweights though being his primary weight class. He did venture once into the big class fighting heavyweight Charlie Jordan(13-48-2,1) in December 1962 loosing a 6 round decision to Jordan. Big names the Santiago fought were Hershel Jacobs and Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, both of whom were early in their careers in early 1962. From 1960 through most of 1963, there wasn't much else to look at whom Felix took on. IN April and May 1963 he fought welterweight Joe Lissy(22-20-10,4) in 2 straight fights. Lissy won the first a 6 round decision and then Santiago won a 6 round UD in the second. Later in 1963 he then lost by 7th round KO to Larry Carney(28-11-2,19), lost a 4 round decision to Bo Hogberg(36-6-1,25), and then lost 2 straight 6 round decisions to Bobby Cassidy in November and December of 63. Cassidy was 10-0-0 early in his career. In April 1964 Felix lost a 10 round decision to Isaac Logart. A year later he fought a 6 round draw with Jimmy McDermott. Those two fought a rematch on Jan. 12th 1967 with McDermott KO'ing Felix in the 4th. It was Satiago's last fight.

Jimmy McDermott - USA Rating 3
Light Heavyweight 1962-72

53 wins / 17 losses / 3 draws / 32 KO

Hometown: Holyoke, MA

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

McDermott fought Larry Carney(28-11-2,19) for the New England LHW Title in December 1967 winning by 1st round TKO. In April 1969 he KO'd Paul Kasper(30-25-0,19) in the 10th round for the New England Heavyweight Title. They fought a rematch a month later with McDermott stopping Kasper again, this time in the 3rd round. About 2 weeks later he climbed into the ring against Pete Riccitelli(52-30-1,21) with the two fighting for both the LHW and HW New England titles. This time McDermott lost, by 8th round knockout. That was the 6th time in their careers that McDermott and Riccitelli squared off against each other. Earlier in thier careers the two fought straight fights on November 22nd and 23rd, 1965 with McDermott knocking out Riccitelli in the 1st round in both fights. Then in May and June 1966 they fought again in two straight fights, that time Riccitelli winning both the first on points the second by KO.They fought a "rubber match" in October 1967 with Riccitelli going down to defeat to JImmy.

In December 1969, McDermott fought one more time for the New England HW Title, that time against Paul Raymond(12-2-3,7), loosing a 10 round decision to Raymond. Some other noteable opponents were Rudolph Bent(MW,33-48-5,14) who McDermott beat three times, lost two fights to MW-Georgie Johnson(59-22-0,30), beat Billy Marsh twice, and lost a 4th round KO to Frank DePaula. Late in his career McDermott lost fights to LHW-Tony Lampron(36-12-3,18) and HW-Stan JOhnson(26-5-0,11).

The Fight.....
For Santiago, this was the end of the line. For McDermott he was in the prime of his career. Santiago, basically a middleweight all his career did some of the usual moving up and down from his primary middleweight class to the welterweights and up to the light heavyweights. This was the second meeting between these two. Back in April 1964 Felix and Jimmy fought to a 6 round draw in Worchester, Massachusetts. Santiago is coming off a 1st round knockout loss to a Lionel Lfill who was only 2-0-0 in May 1966 and then a 4 round decision loss to a William Burton in August. It was Burton’s first career fight. When McDermott KO’d Santiago in the 4th round here in January 1967, that was it for Santiago’s career.
Don’t know for sure the length of this scheduled fight, but will assume it was a 6 rounder since that is what Santiago was fighting mostly over the last 3 years. McDermott dominated throughout our replay fight with him landing punches at will. Santiago was dropped three times in the fight, but somehow managed to get up each time and carried the fight on through it’s full 6 rounds! Felix went down in the 2nd, 5th and 6th rounds. Needless to say it ended up a unanimous decision win for McDermott, but what shocked me was that even though the first two judges scored each round in McDermott’s favor for 60-51 counts, the 3rd judge actually gave round 4 to Santiago!! It was actually his best round being able to land a handful of punches but, the point count was still 14-5 in McDermott’s favor??!!