Edwin De Los Santos sees Shakur Stevenson as the best opponent of his professional career.
The Dominican southpaw surprisingly considers Stevenson only slightly better, though, than Francisco Contreras. The Dominican Republic’s Contreras took a 31-10 record into a six-round fight De Los Santos won by unanimous decision 4½ years ago in Santo Domingo.
De Los Santos also stressed that boxing fans should understand that Stevenson hasn’t faced anyone as good as him in the two-division champion’s first 20 professional fights. Stevenson, a southpaw from Newark, New Jersey, is generally regarded as one of the top 10 boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
The 24-year-old De Los Santos is nonetheless confident that he’ll pull off Thursday night what would be considered a huge upset, at least according to the 14-1 odds listed by BetMGM sportsbook.
“We all know that he’s very talented,” De Los Santos told BoxingScene.com through a translator. “We have to recognize that. But we also have to recognize that he hasn’t fought the caliber of boxer I am. And on November 16th, I’ll walk away with the upset.”
Brooklyn’s De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) is technically sound, but he is also one of the harder punchers that Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) will have fought. De Los Santos has won 82 percent of his professional bouts by knockout, most notably his third-round stoppage of then-undefeated prospect Jose Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) in September 2022 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
“I consider myself more of a boxer than a puncher, but my power is natural,” De Los Santos said. “I try to focus on my boxing in each round. I focus on my job, but where the power comes in, which I said is natural, is when the fight ends.”
The 26-year-old Stevenson hasn’t been down, let alone out, as a pro. De Los Santos assured, however, that the 2016 Olympic silver medalist will have more difficulty handling him than other opponents in a 12-round, 135-pound championship clash that ESPN will televise from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I have faced tough fights and opponents similar to him that didn’t cause problems,” De Los Santos said. “But with him, you can say he’s fought guys who are similar to me. The thing is the people he has fought have [given in] to his style. And I won’t [give in] to his style.”
Stevenson is impressed with De Los Santos’ ring IQ and anticipates that a proverbial chess match will unfold in the early rounds of their fight for the vacant WBC lightweight title. De Los Santos respects the intelligent, skillful Stevenson’s abilities as well.
“I don’t think he’s overrated because he’s done a lot of things,” De Los Santos said. “And you have to recognize why he’s in the position he’s in.”
De Los Santos is 3-0 since he suffered his only professional loss, an eight-round, split-decision defeat to then-unbeaten William Foster III (16-1, 10 KOs, 1 NC) in January 2022 at Caribe Royale Orlando in Orlando, Florida. He most recently outboxed Joseph Adorno (18-3-2, 15 KOs) and won a 10-round unanimous decision July 8 at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
ESPN’s telecast is scheduled to begin Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. ET. Promoter Top Rank’s doubleheader will begin with a 12-round, 130-pound title fight in which Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (38-1, 31 KOs) will defend his WBO junior lightweight title against Brazil’s Robson Conceicao (17-2, 8 KOs, 1 NC).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.