Santa Barbara Students Make Shirts for Local Boxer’s Big HBO Fight
Custom t-shirts for boxer Francisco “Chia” Santana, made at Santa Barbara High School, will be in the middle of the ring at Madison Square Garden Saturday night in New York.
They have been designed and created by students in the business department at the Dons Net Cafe. Santana went through the programs when he was at SB High and developing his boxing career.
Recently he stopped by to pick up a shirt, and make one for his new born daughter.
“It was a lot of pressure because he was in watching us while we were making it,” said student Lalo Martinez. “He was just in here with his wife and daughter and we told him he could press his daughter’s shirt too.”
The shirts have a Santa Barbara High logo on the front and the words :once a Don always a Don.” The back reads “CHIA” and the words, “train, fight, win.”
Santana is a rising star in the sport of boxing. He holds a title belt as an International Welterweight champion. He has 22 ring victories.
Saturday night will be his biggest fight, and it will be shown on HBO. Santana (22-3, 11 KOs) takes on undefeated welterweight and former 2008 U.S. Olympian, Sadam “World Kid” Ali (21-0, 13 KOs).
Boxing Historian David Martinez has tracked Santana’s career for more than 15 years. He writes on his site DMBoxing.com about Chia’s early ring experience back in 2001, in a workout with WBC super bantamweight champion Willie Jorrin on a visit to Santa Barbara.
