Shakur Stevenson has high praise for his former opponent, Edwin De Los Santos. Moreover, he even compared the 24-year-old to Isaac Cruz on social media today! However, the question is what led to this confession from the WBC lightweight champion? Let’s take it from the top. ‘Pitbull’ Cruz suffered an astronomical upset on August 3rd against underdog Jose Valenzuela.

Despite the odds, Valenzuela put on quite the performance and took home the victory via a split decision, becoming the WBA junior welterweight champion. This seems to have sparked a conversation between Shakur Stevenson and Cigar Talk host Naji on X, which eventually led to rematch talks between Edwin De Los Santos and Jose Valenzuela.

Shakur Stevenson shares predictions for the potential fight

‘Rayo’ Valenzuela and De Los Santos went toe to toe back in September 2022, which saw the latter finish the fight in the third round via a knockout. This came after De Los Santos had made Valenzuela taste the canvas twice in rounds two and three, having gotten knocked down himself in the second round. 

Regardless, with Valenzuela’s breakthrough win over Isaac Cruz in Los Angeles on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov, Naji took to X, suggesting the best next move for ‘Rayo’ is to rematch De Los Santos and avenge his loss. It quickly attracted a prediction from the Newark native, who wrote back, “Edwin wins again”.

Responding to this, Naji claimed he feels the same way, but would be interested in seeing whether ‘Rayo’ could maintain his performance. It prompted Shakur Stevenson, who fought Edwin De Los Santos in November last year and came under scrutiny for slow performance, to claim, “Edwin is 20 times better [than] pitbull[.] I [have] been tryna tell people this”.

Interestingly, when Stevenson fought De Los Santos, it felt more like a cat-and-mouse game! Stevenson would land a few shots on De Los Santos and scramble out of his opponent’s reach. This continued for the whole fight, leading to Stevenson winning the fight via a unanimous decision. 

The public backlash from this fight was immense, and it didn’t improve much when Stevenson fought Artem Harutyunyan earlier this year. Nonetheless, despite the loss, Cruz might not be on board with what the final scorecard said that night. 

Isaac Cruz is letting everyone else decide

Earlier this year, Isaac Cruz scored a fantastic eighth-round knockout victory over Rolly Romero while debuting in the junior welterweight division. This had led to many believing that Valenzuela would be easy work for the Mexican rising talent, who had a single prior loss to Gervonta Davis when they fought back in December 2021. 

However, after Valenzuela put an end to Cruz’s five fight win streak since Davis, Cruz said during the in-ring interview after the fight through his translator, “Just take a listen to this crowd, they’re the judge of all this, not me”. He further added, “I never like to make a decision on what the result of the fight is. I just get on with my work and let everyone else decide”. 

Having said that, Shakur Stevenson seems convinced Edwin De Los Santos is far better than Isaac Cruz, especially after the latter’s last performance. However, it’s not clear whether Jose Valenzuela would pursue a rematch against De Los Santos. Still, Cruz had suggested he is pursuing a rematch against ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela. Do you agree with Shakur Stevenson?