Keyshawn Davis Faces Inactive Edwin De Los Santos For WBO Crown On June 7th

WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis (13-0, 9 KOs) will defend against inactive #13-ranked Edwin De Los Santos on June 7th on ESPN in Norfolk, Virginia.

Yesterday, it had been reported that De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) had declined the offer and that Keyshawn was moving on. Now, the fight is done. Likely negotiating games to get the rarely seen De Los Santos to agree to the price.

Sneaky Strategy

When De Los Santos was actively fighting years ago, he was an excellent fighter. He knocked out Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela and beat Joseph Adorno. However, Edwin lost to Shakur Stevenson and William Foster III. Those defeats were red flags that De Los Santos wasn’t the real deal.

Matching Keyshawn against De Los Santos instead of one of the active talents, like Andy Cruz, is a sneaky move because there’s not much risk involved.

Glass Jaw Risk

He does have punching power, which is Keyshawn’s kryptonite. We saw the 2020 Olympic silver medalist Davis hurt by Nahir Albright in 2023, and ever since that bad experience, Top Rank has matched him very carefully. Keyshawn has a glass jaw. So, if the ring-rusty De Los Santos can land one of his big shots on him, he’ll go to sleep, and Top Rank will need to put him on another rebuild job.

What are the reasons for De Los Santos being picked?

1. Comparison purposes: Shakur Stevenson beat De Los Santos in his last fight in 2023. So, if Keyshawn does a better job than him in doing so, it gives him a boost in popularity. Fans that don’t pay attention to dates and inactivity won’t be aware that the Stevenson fight took place two years ago and that De Los Santos hasn’t fought ever since.
2. Ensure Keyshawn wins: What better way to make sure Davis wins than to pick an inactive fighter coming off a loss? It’s perfect.
3. Make Davis look great: Fighting an inactive guy is an excellent way of making Keyshawn look like 24k gold.

Mike Coppinger broke the news of the Keyshawn vs. De Los Santos fight, which is set for June 7th. De Los Santos hasn’t fought in two years since his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson on November 16th, 2023.

Two Years Out

The obvious question is, why is an inactive fighter who hasn’t fought in ages and is coming off a loss being picked by Top Rank for Keyshawn’s first title defense of his WBO belt? If the idea is to make Davis look better than he is, it makes sense for De Los Santos to be selected, but it doesn’t seem logical otherwise.

The idea behind champions making defenses is to pick worthy contenders. When a guy is coming off a loss and a two-year layoff, it gives the impression that the fighter has been cherry-picked to ensure the champion can hold onto his belt.

De Los Santos is ranked below these contenders:

– Raymond Muratalla
– Abdullah Mason
– Lamont Roach Jr.
– Andy Cruz