American Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) and Dominican Edwin De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) did something obscure. A struggle with so few strikes and active actions that it was as if it had never happened. And this is without exaggeration. De Los Santos landed the least powerful blow in CompuBox history.

Fans were so unhappy that they buzzed both during the fight and during the final interview of the new champion in three weight divisions.

He mentioned Shakur, Lomachenko and Haney. But De Los Santos was the most incomprehensible fight in the American’s career

Shakur Stevenson is definitely a talented boxer. This cannot be obvious even to people who consider boxing a rare spectacle. But we need suitable opponents to assess the level of his skill.

Most people only perceive tops. If you are seen as one of the best in people’s minds, you should only beat the same opponents. But in practice there is no such competitor. So there are some of the best per pound and they are all picks.

But this confrontation with fewer rivals in the media does not make things worse. They get worse when their fighting styles and methods intersect with other problems. How did the night of November 16-17 happen in Las Vegas?

In fact, we were facing a 24-year-old prospect who had destroyed three very, very strong opponents in the previous three fights. He knocked out two undefeated boxers who were predicted to have a great future and beat an experienced opponent. He was facing a two-division champion, a potential pound-for-pound leader, and the future of all boxing.

Sounds nice, right? Let’s add stylistic features. The likely candidate is a heavy-punching southpaw who can counter-attack, throw multi-hit streaks, and score opponents. He has a great shot and a stubborn character. The favorite is also left-handed, he also has a fist and, most importantly, knows how to use it in a way that especially hurts. It works great for both the body and the head, and has such timing that it’s impossible to understand how it does it.

In theory, this seems like a perfect match. Maybe not the brightest, but aesthetically beautiful. It is a boxing product that will be very enjoyable to watch. So all this didn’t happen.

What did we get in the end? A shooting conflict in which one did not want to risk and the second tried – he could not and did not want to do it.

In fact, it all ended when De Los Santos realized that Shakur was a better boxer than him. Stevenson fired at him with punches and struck him several times. It neutralized the first attempts. Edwin realized it wouldn’t work, so he tried a few more times, but it still didn’t work.

And then he took minimal risks because he couldn’t, and Shakur took risks because it was normal for him anyway. The fight was heading towards victory, Stevenson met and, not having time, got to his feet so quickly that his opponent could not do anything.

Who’s the problem? Probably both. And the truth is that the circumstances developed this way. But, first of all, they ended badly for the fans who came to see the conflict between young Americans and received some kind of incomprehensible spectacle without respect for the audience.

Those in the audience booed and left the hall. They buzzed when Stevenson tried to say something after the fight. Everyone realized that this was not a show. This is generally something far from boxing. High class and technical, but not boxing as an element of the show. And we didn’t even spar because there was minimal risk.

CompuBox is a questionable system that raises questions among many people. But in our case it recorded everything very clearly. De Los Santos has had the fewest strikes in the 38 years of CompuBox statistics. Once again – for the entire history of CompuBox. Stevenson had 65 shots on target (out of 209 shots), while De Los Santos had 40 on target (out of 316 shots). Shakur had 46 hits and his opponent had 26 hits. In total, the fighters delivered 33 powerful blows.

So why did this happen?

What’s next?

Shakur quickly admitted he had a bad fight. He said his boxing was “not the best performance” and that he felt bad before the fight but that was no excuse because the fight was still bad.

Of course there will be no revenge. Who needs it and who will strive for it when the first fight goes like this?

Then Lomachenko prepares for Shakur. Vasily will start boxing at the beginning of 2024. According to Bob Arum, everything is almost confirmed. By the way, it is not certain that George Kambosos will be his opponent, because when asked about this, Vasily’s manager Egis Klimas said:

“The title does not exist yet.”

So the fight with Kambosos is either not for the IBF belt or not against George. Against whom – we will find out very soon.

This will be followed by the Shakur-Lomachenko fight. Of course, if Vasily wins. And just because Stevenson was completely overwhelmed today doesn’t mean he can’t beat the Ukrainian boxer. Young, strong, big and meticulous. Even if he felt bad, even if it was very boring, he easily outran a dangerous opponent. It will be incredibly difficult for Lomachenko.

On the other hand, Stevenson has never fought someone like Lomachenko. And does it matter? Because beating similar boxers or Japanese people is one thing, fighting against a Ukrainian is another. And doing it in sparring is one thing, doing it in full combat is another. It will definitely be interesting.

What will happen to De Los Santos? He will come back on the undercard of a fight and box well. Nothing has changed in this man’s life. He left the ring with a minimal number of missed punches, but with money in his account. Perfect.