Dominican slugger Edwin De Los Santos is ready for his first world title opportunity.
The 24-year-old southpaw will face pound-for-pound star Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBC lightweight world title on Thursday, Nov. 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In the world championship co-feature, Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete defends his WBO junior lightweight strap against Brazilian Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceição.
Stevenson-De Los Santos and Navarrete-Conceição will be broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) debuted in the pro ranks in 2018 and notched his first 13 victories in his home country. In his U.S. debut, he suffered a razor-thin split decision loss to William Foster III. He hasn’t lost a fight since. In 2022, he took two unbeaten records, knocking out Luis Acosta with a left hand in the second round and dropping Jose Valenzuela twice before stopping him in round three. In July, De Los Santos dominated Joseph Adorno over 10 rounds Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) seeks to become a three-division world champion following a sixth-round stoppage win over Japanese contender Shuichiro Yoshino in April.
Following a recent training session, this is what De Los Santos had to say:
“This is the most difficult and important challenge of my career. Winning this fight will change my life forever. I know Shakur is a great champion, and I understand I will need my entire arsenal to defeat him. It is a huge challenge, but not impossible.”
“I am extremely focused on being crowned world champion and giving a world title to the Dominican Republic. A victory over Shakur would go down as one of the greatest in the history of Dominican boxing. That motivates me much more.”
Photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
