De los Santos continues global rise, eyes more wins

James De los Santos, already the e-karate golden boy, is expanding his turf.

After picking up his 18th title on Saturday, De Los Santos now rules four of eight global e-leagues while bolstering his perch atop the world rankings.

And he’s not showing signs of slowing down.

“There are 12 upcoming tournaments in November, and there will also be more this coming Christmas season,” De Los Santos told the Inquirer. “So I won’t be having much of a holiday.”

He just recently added to his trophy case the Pune Open India karate e-tournament after beating Brazil’s Murillo Alves, 3-0.

That win is expected to solidify the 30-year-old De Los Santos’ hold of the world ranking, where he has 9,355 points to lead erstwhile top player Eduardo Garcia of Portugal (8,575).

Split rule

But the 2017 Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist admitted that it won’t be easy to maintain that lofty standings.

De Los Santos and Garcia split the eight league rankings, which tally the performances in all e-tournaments that have since replaced face-to-face competitions.

Fighting in individual male seniors e-karate, the Filipino is top guy in e-karate with 750 points, leading Alves who is at second place (330 points) and Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia (285).

He also leads E-Champions Trophy with 405 points, pacing Matias Moreno Domont of Switzerland (285) and Scott Taylor of Canada (165) in the top 3 places.

With 510 points, De Los Santos is No. 1 in Golden League also besting Alves (510) and Domont (390). In Okinawa World Series, De Los Santos has 435 to also lead Domont (315) and Abdellatif Choukri of Morroco (165).