Shakur Stevenson became a three-weight world champion at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but it wasn’t pretty as he outscored Edwin De Los Santos to capture the vacant WBC lightweight title.
Stevenson (21-0, 10KOs) had already clinched world championship belts at featherweight and super featherweight, and made a lightweight debut in April, stopping Shuichiro Yoshino in six rounds in Newark. De Los Santos (16-2, 14KOs) came into this one having never been past ten rounds, completing that distance in his most recent contest, a points win against Joseph Adorno in July.
This one was a fight where styles just didn’t gel. The two southpaws got to work, with Stevenson establishing his jab in the opener, but it was a scrappy affair with not a lot to report. Stevenson stayed elusive, with De Los Santos trying to force the action, but not overly succeeding, but he did finally find a body shot in the fifth that got Stevenson’s attention.
By round seven, the crowd began to boo, and Stevenson continued to respect the power of his opponent by staying out of trouble, and De Los Santos was chasing shadows. The American landed with some good body work in round ten, and he peppered the Dominican in the penultimate frame, and showboated in the final round as the bout went to the cards.
Stevenson had his hand raised by two scores of 116-112, and a third at 115-113, which probably reflected how tough the fight was to score with what little action there was.
Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
Emanuel Navarrete (38-1-1, 31KOs) clung on to his WBO super featherweight title, but could only manage a draw against Robson Conceicao (17-2-1, 8KOs), despite scoring two knockdowns during the contest. Conceicao frustrated the champion in the early going, but Navarrete exploded into life in the fourth, landing a left uppercut that shook Conceicao to his boots, and a follow-up attack had him on the deck. A thudding body shot from Navarrete had the Brazilian down once more in the seventh, but Conceicao was more than competitive, and after twelve rounds, the knockdowns saved the Mexican his title, as two 113-113 cards rendered the fight a draw, with the third judge favouring Navarrete by a score of 114-112.
Brian Norman Jr (25-0, 19KOs) remained unbeaten, with the welterweight outscoring Quinton Randall (13-1-1, 3KOs) over ten rounds. Norman Jr took victory by two scores of 99-91, and a third at 97-93.
In eight round contests, Floyd Diaz (10-0, 3KOs) took a split decision against Max Ornelas (15-2-1, 5KOs) to take the vacant WBC Youth bantamweight title, while Troy Isley (11-0, 4KOs) scraped past Vladimir Hernandez (14-6, 6KOs) by just two points at middleweight.
At six round level, Giovanni Sarchioto (9-0, 8KOs) halted Lucas de Abreu (14-5, 11KOs) in the third round of their super middleweight meeting, and Abdullah Mason (11-0, 9KOs) took another early win, knocking out Jose Cardenas (7-2, 5KOs) in the second at lightweight.
Also at lightweight, Emiliano Vargas (8-0, 7KOs) also won in the second against Brandon Mendoza (6-3, 6KOs), while heavyweight hopeJackson Murray (6-0, 4KOs) took a wide points win over Steven Torres (6-1-1, 6KOs). At super lightweight, Hugo Micallef (9-0, 2KOs) forced Sergio Obadai (6-2-1, 3KOs) to retire after four rounds.
