by Francisco Salazar

Welterweight Francisco Santana will return to action on April 2, Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman told BoxingScene.com on Saturday.

The 10 round bout will take place at the Oceanview Pavilion in Port Hueneme, Calif. and will be broadcast on UniMas. Port Hueneme is adjacent to the boxing hotbed of Oxnard.

It will be the second fight Santana will fight under the Top Rank banner. In his last bout on December 12, Santana knocked out Arman Ovsepyan in the sixth round.

Santana, who signed a managerial contract with Frank Espinoza last week, trains in nearby Ventura and resides in Santa Barbara.

On January 9 of last year, Santana (23-4, 12 KOs) scored a highlight-reel first round knockout over Kendal Mena. Three and a half months later, Santana gave a good account of himself against Sadam Ali, losing by unanimous decision over 10 rounds.

The loss snapped a 10-bout winning streak.

No word yet on who will fight in the opening televised bout scheduled for six rounds.

Goodman did say junior welterweight Luis Ramos (25-2, 10 KOs) and junior middleweight Alexander Besputin (2-0, 2 KOs) will appear in separate bouts on the non-televised undercard.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing