By Jim Dower: 39-year-old former WBA light heavyweight champion Danny Green (32-5, 28 KO’s) ended a two-fight losing streak by defeating 39-year-old trail horse Danny Santiago by a 5th round TKO on Wednesday night in a four knockdown performance by Green at the Challenge Stadium, Mt Claremont, Western Australia, Australia.

Green knocked Santiago down with four consecutive left hands to the head in the 5th. Moments before that, Green had almost knocked Santiago down with a short right hand to the head that perhaps should have been counted as a knockdown because Santiago needed to touch the canvas in order to keep from falling down.

Green knocked Santiago down in the 3rd round from a right to the body followed by a right uppercut to the head. However, Santiago didn’t go down from the punches but father from a left hand forearm push to the head that send him down. The referee should have caught that but he somehow missed it despite being only a few feet away. It didn’t matter in the big scheme of things but it’s not good to see fighters getting credit for knockdowns when they shove their opponents to the canvas.

In the 4th round, Green staggered Santiago early in the round with a chopping right hand to the head. Later in the round, Green knocked Santiago down with a left to the body. When the action resumed, Green knocked Santiago down with a left hook to the head that badly hurt him. Santiago staggered around after getting up and it’s unclear why the referee allowed the fight to continue because Santiago was out on his feet.

All in all, a decent win for Green. It was nice to see him end his two fight losing streak to Antonio Tarver and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. Green was knocked out in both of those fights. It’s hard to see where Green can go at this point. I think he would be beaten by all of the cruiserweight champions and there’s no place for him at light heavyweight either. To be sure, Green can beat the high level journeyman type fighters like Santiago, but I don’t see him beating anyone that you could consider good at this point.