Shakur Stevenson vs Edwin De Los Santos agreed for November 16th in Las Vegas

Image: Shakur Stevenson vs Edwin De Los Santos agreed for November 16th in Las Vegas
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 21: Shakur Stevenson speaks during the press conference ahead of his WBC and WBO junior lightweight championship fight with Robson Conceição, at Prudential Center on September 21, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)
By Boxing News - 09/13/2023 - Comments

By Brian Webber: Shakur Stevenson is ready to face the powerful#6 Edwin De Los Santos for the vacant WBC lightweight title next on November 16th in Las Vegas.

Stevenson vs. De Los Santos will be shown on ESPN during the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend in Vegas. If De Los Santos puts hands on Shakur, he’ll finish what Cuban talent Robeisy Ramirez started in the 2016 Olympics.

De Los Santos is a devastating one-punch knockout artist, with a recent third round TKO win over Jose Valenzuela and a one-sided ten round unanimous decision victory over Joseph Adorno.

The only loss of the 23-year-old Dominican Republic native De Los Santos’ five-year career was a close eight round split decision to Charles Foster III in 2022.

Advantages De Los Santos: 

  • Power
  • Toughness
  • Youth
  • Hunger

De Los Santos was getting to Foster in the later rounds, and had that fight passed the eighth, he likely would have knocked him out. That’s one of the downsides of fights that are shorter duration. You don’t get to see the knockouts that you normally would if it were a longer fight.

Boxing fans are already viewing the Stevenson vs. De Los Santos contest as a 50-50 toss-up affair because the punching power of Edwin more than evens out the defensive skills that Shakur brings to the table.

Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) says he sees the hard-hitting southpaw De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) as a better fighter than Frank Martin (18-0, 12 KOs), who angered him by choosing not to go through with the fight.

Shakur said on Twitter that Martin wanted 50% of the purse, but he denied that. We’ll never know for sure. What we do know is Martin chose not to go through with the fight, and it could be that his management has a better option for him.

It’s rumored that Martin is one of the two fighters WBA ‘regular’ champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is considering for his next fight in November or December.

The other guy Tank is considering is Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, who he already beat in December 2021. Hardcore boxing fans would rather see Gervonta face some new blood, Frank Martin, rather than bring Pitbull Cruz back for a rematch.

That’s when Stevenson’s planned contest against #2 Martin was supposed to occur, and Top Rank wants that date to take advantage of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

There will be many people in Las Vegas that weekend, and many will be watching at home on ESPN, which is the network that will be showing Shakur’s next fight, be it against the heavy-handed De Los Santos or perhaps Jamaine Ortiz.

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