Shakur Stevenson and Edwin De Los Santos headlined a Top Rank card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on November 16th. However, both fighters delivered severely disappointing performances that sparked controversy when the unanimous decision victory for Stevenson was announced. This win marked him as a three-division champion, earning the vacant WBC lightweight title. The two lightweights fought for the belt previously relinquished by Devin Haney in September.
American multi-weight champion Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KO’s) and Dominican contender Edwin De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KO’s) put on one of the most bizarre and disappointing performances in a world title fight at lightweight to contest the vacant WBC lightweight title. Both fighters appeared ill-prepared or unwilling to engage properly, resulting in an unentertaining bout overall.
The match was notable for De Los Santos’ inability to cut off the ring, while Stevenson contributed to the lackluster bout with his tendency to barely engage. Although Stevenson secured the win through his jab and accuracy, and De Los Santos struggled to land punches, the former unified super featherweight champion failed to showcase the skills he has demonstrated throughout his career.
Stevenson’s apparent timidity may have been influenced by Edwin De Los Santos’ reputation as a powerful puncher. However, Stevenson has previously faced similar opponents, such as Oscar Valdez (31-, 23 KO’s), whom he fought last year in April to unify at 130 lbs.
Despite De Los Santos’ credentials and the opportunity to win the WBC lightweight title, he was surprisingly ineffective. While he showed effort, Stevenson’s constant movement made it difficult for De Los Santos to land punches. However, De Los Santos’ inaccuracy revealed his own shortcomings in anticipating such tactics.
CompuBox’s punch stats for the 135 lbs title bout between Shakur Stevenson and Edwin De Los Santos were inconclusive, reflecting the difficulty in decisively tipping the match in anyone’s favor due to its closeness and lackluster nature. Nevertheless, the judges declared Stevenson the victor with scores of 116-112 twice and 115-113, making him the new WBC lightweight champion.
Stevenson’s victory was not eye-catching, but he now stands as one of two legitimate world champions in the division, alongside unified lightweight champion Devin Haney (30-0, 15 KO’s), who holds the remaining three world titles. An undisputed fight between the two is not unrealistic, despite their recent clash on social media, revealing that Stevenson pulled out of contract talks to fight Haney earlier this year. However, this potential matchup depends on Haney’s decision after his upcoming December 9th fight with Regis Prograis (29-1, 24 KO’s) at super lightweight.
The co-main event featured Mexican WBO super featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete (38-1-1, 31 KO’s) defending his title against former Stevenson opponent Brazilian contender Robson Conceicao (17-2-1, 8 KO’s).
The two provided a much more entertaining spectacle for the Las Vegas crowd in a fight that could have gone either way. Conceicao appeared to perform better in the latter part of the bout, while Navarrete made headway in the earlier rounds.
Conceicao’s excellent boxing seemed to put him ahead, yet two knockdowns he suffered during the fight indicated he still had some vulnerabilities to overcome. Despite these setbacks, Conceicao proved too tough to stop or knock out and the fight went the full distance of twelve rounds as Conceicao seemed to recover from the knockdown to the point it did not affect his overall performance.
Overall, it was a decent showcase for Navarrete despite the draw as he still managed to show his danger by knocking Conceicao down twice. However, facing an opponent that hadn’t won since January 2022 and had suffered a loss, as well as a fight in June that was ruled a no-contest after only two rounds, he did not meet expectations by actually winning the fight.
The fight ended in a majority decision draw, with two judges scoring it 113-113 and one scoring it as a close win for Navarrete at 114-112 to allow him to retain his WBO super featherweight title.
Considering Navarrete was considered a heavy favorite given Conceicao’s recent form, his performance seemed to revolve around underestimating Conceicao’s ability. However, Conceicao proved himself surprisingly formidable, earning the right to a rematch after the majority decision draw and his commendable performance.
