Former super featherweight champion Jamel Herring says the powerful, lightweight contender Edwin De Los Santos has a decent chance of upsetting favorite Shakur Stevenson this Thursday night in their fight for the vacant WBC 135-lb title on November 16th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Herring, who lost his WBO 130-lb title Shakur by a knockout in 2021, says that the hunger, power, the adaptability of the 24-year-old southpaw De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) give him a shot of winning in their fight on ESPN.
Top Rank has done a good job of matching Shakur against good but not great opposition to give him experience, so he’s got that going for him against De Los Santos.
They were careful not to put the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Stevenson in with anyone too good, lest he might fall apart like we saw when he was embarrassed by Cuban Robeisy Ramirez.
The blueprint was created by Robeisy on how to beat Shakur in their fight, using power, nonstop pressure, and not letting him escape unmolested when he uses his pull-back.
Jamel still gives Stevenson a 70% chance of beating De Los Santos, but he believes we could see him upset.
De Los Santos’ advantages:
- Power
- Chin
- Toughness
- Rumors of Shakur getting knocked out in sparring by Liam Paro. Leaked video showing Kevin Johnson piecing him up.
De Los Santos = Shakur’s best opponent
“Probably so. I’m going to be honest with you. I didn’t have my best look,” said Jamel Herring to MillCity Boxing when asked if Edwin De Los Santos is the best guy that Shakur Stevenson will have fought when they meet on November 16th this week.
“He [De Los Santos] boxed in one fight [against Joseph Adorno], and in another fight [Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzeula], he was going toe to toe. He got hurt in that one fight and then came back and stopped him,” said Herring.
De Los Santos blitzed Rayo, attacking him like a tsunami without letup to score a third round knockout last year in September. However, in De Los Santos’ fight with the hard-hitting Joseph Adorno, he boxed his way to a ten round unanimous decision.
If it were up to De Los Santos, he probably would have attacked Adorno relentlessly like he did Rayo, but he clearly was following the instructions from his training team by boxing him, and not taking chances.
That fight showed how disciplined De Los Santos is because he follows instructions and doesn’t veer away to brawl.
“I’m watching his [De Los Santos] demeanor, and he was poking the bear with Shakur. You can tell that he’s up for this fight. He really believes in himself. He took less money than they were offering Frank Martin to make the fight.
“That tells you right there that he’s going for legacy. He looks at it like, ‘If I win here, the money is going to come,’ but again, it’s a good match-up,” said Herring about Edwin De Los Santos taking less money just to get the opportunity to defeat Stevenson and take his career to the next level.
A victory for De Los Santos over Shakur will put him in a position for a potential fight against WBA regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, Vasily Lomachenko, George Kambosos Jr., or Devin Haney. The opportunities would be endless for De Los Santos.
Edwin chasing legacy
“I think it can go twelve. I give him a 70% chance just because of the tools that he has,” said Herring about what percentage chance he gave Shakur to win. “All it takes is one punch to turn a fight around.
“I think it’s disrespectful to count someone out of a fight, especially someone as hungry as he [De Los Santos] is. This is boxing. We’ve seen surprises before. Andy Ruiz wasn’t supposed to beat Joshua, and that’s what I’m saying,” said Herring.
Even if there weren’t rumors circulating about Shakur being knocked out by his sparring partner Liam Paro during this camp, you still couldn’t count out De Los Santos because he hits too hard. But the sparring stories and the leaked video showing Kevin Johnson hammering Stevenson, it makes you realize that he’s very beatable.
“That’s why we love the sport. Anything can happen, but again, if I was a betting man, of course, I would lean towards Shakur Stevenson,” said Herring.
“I didn’t look good against Shakur. If he’s [De Los Santos] a fighter that is coming in with different styles, that’s a smart fighter. I would never judge a man’s hunger and determination to go after something.
“Let’s be honest. They went down the [WBC] list, and no one else was trying to fight that man [Shakur]. It was one thing or another to try and get Shakur a fight to begin with.”
De Los Santos took the fight because that’s the type of person he is, but he obviously believes he can beat Stevenson. He had to have watched Shakur’s fairly simple pull-back fighting style and how bad he looked in his loss to Robeisy, who is the last good opponent that he’s fought.
In the pro ranks, Shakur hasn’t fought any dangerous guys. Yeah, he beat a faded Oscar Valdez Herring Joet Gonzalez, but that’s about it.
“When he [De Los Santos] got the opportunity, I think he could have called his number on the table on what he wanted. He took less. They only paid $400,000 for this fight. They [Top Rank] were offering Frank Martin a million, and he didn’t ask for even half of that.
“That right there shows how hungry he is,” said Herring. “He just wants the belt. He wants to be a champion. When I look at things like that, I’m like, ‘He’s a serious fighter. He’s not a diva about it. He’s not picky. He’s not making excuses for why the fight shouldn’t happen.
You can’t expect to fight every fighter the same because now, in today’s world, when video is always out there, if you have a smart fighter and a smart team, they’re going to pick up on every little thing that you’re doing out there. So you always have to change up with every fighter,” said Herring.
