Rene’s not talked about much. Even here in Puerto Rico he’s not as well known as Xander Zayas or even Oscar Collazo. But he’s got 2 of the 4 belts in the division, and tonight he defends them against Masataka Taniguchi in Japan. Gotta hand it to him. This is his 3rd straight fight in Japan. I admire any fighter who’s willing to go halfway around the world to defend his title(s).
Probably won’t be able to see it live, but I’ll be rooting him on. 
Awesome fight! I hadn’t seen René before, but he showed his championship mettle. It was a tough fight. Taniguchi looked a lot bigger than René, and was powerful. I was able to see the fight, and scored it as follows:
Happy that René defended his belts. Hopefully we’ll see him fight at home soon.
tough fight for rene, that knockdown helped. i gave masataka five rounds. oscar collazo should move up for that fight if he can’t unify at 105
That would be a massive fight. But I’d like for both of them to be undisputed first. I can imagine the magnitude of a fight between Santiago undisputed at 108 and Collazo undisputed at 105, and coming up to 108. It would paralyze the island. 
oscar needs to get that pedro taduran fight done, pedro looked excellent in his fight today
rene santiago v masataka taniguchi
marlon tapales v yukinori oguni, one of the bigger upsets so far this year
perdro’s team (manny pacquio promotions) called out oscar in the ring after his fight this weekend
Taduran would seem a next logical choice. The other belt holder is Jerusalem, whom Collazo has already beaten.
pedro & rene are two guys oscar barely mentions. oscar & pedro should both be free now to pursue a unification. the melvin jerusalem rematch was supposed to happen last month on the potential vergil ortiz v boots ennis card before it fell apart, leading oscar to defend against jesus haro instead