Shakur Stevenson becomes a three-weight world champion with unanimous decision win over Brazil’s Edwin De Los Santos… but admits he delivered a ‘bad performance’ in drab fight that left fans booing

Shakur Stevenson won the WBC lightweight championship via unanimous decision over Edwin De Los Santos on Thursday night in a fight that had fans booing the lack of action.

Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) captured a title in a third weight class. The Newark, New Jersey native also won the WBO featherweight title in 2019 and the WBO junior lightweight championship in 2021.

Judges Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld both scored the fight 116-112, while David Sutherland scored the bout 115-113.

An heralded – and disgruntled – gathering of 6,703 people was on hand for a rare Thursday boxing card at the T-Mobile Arena, just steps from Las Vegas Boulevard, where Formula 1 cars zoomed by during a practice session on the opening night of F1 Las Vegas. Grand Prix of Vegas.

Qualifying for the race is Friday evening and the race itself takes place on Saturday evening.

De Los Santos, who fell to 16-2, had Stevenson backed up for much of the fight and found himself chasing and missing when opportunities presented themselves.

“I did my job,” De Los Santos said. ‘He came to survive. That’s what he did. They gave him the title, but I am the people’s champion.’

Stevenson certainly did not seem to be the overwhelming favorite and expressed his disappointment with his performance afterwards.

“Don’t congratulate me on a bad performance,” Stevenson told reporters shortly after his lackluster performance. ‘It just wasn’t me man. There was a lot going on. I’m not going to make excuses. It was a good fight, just a bad performance and not my standards.”

Immediately after the fight, during a ring interviewStevenson said he was ‘not feeling well’ and felt his performance might not be good.

And while a trigger-happy right hand remained effective in keeping De Los Santos on their heels, Stevenson was cautious about throwing his left hand, but would neither admit nor deny that he was injured.

“I’m not giving you anything,” Stevenson said. ‘I’m not making excuses, I have everything in my own hands, I should have put in a better performance tonight. I’m a better fighter. I can’t go into details. I have no excuses for any of you. Bad night. I’ll go back to the drawing board and come back.”

And while the big question for Stevenson was who he would fight next, he said he would like to take “about two months” off since he has been training for the past seven months.

“I think he needs to go back and reassess … what changes he needs to make,” said mentor and former champion Andre Ward. “He looked a little flat tonight. He will determine what that reason is.

“He needs rest…he’s never out of the gym. He’s an elite fighter, and for elite fighters who are used to dominating, not putting in a dominant performance can almost feel like a loss. That’s what he’s working on now. But it’s also good for him, it’s sobering. It just reminds you that the game doesn’t always love you back.”

Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (38-1-1, 31 KOs) and Brazil’s Robson Conceição fought to a draw in the co-main event. Navarrete, the WBO junior lightweight champion, dropped Conceição (17-2-2, 8 KOs) twice during the fightbut the challenger’s persistence in the final rounds ensured he was awarded a draw.

Judges Max De Luca and Chris Flores both scored the fight 113-113, while Don Trella had it 114-112 in favor of Navarrete.

Conceição, 35, who won gold at the 2016 Olympics, said he would like a rematch.

“He deserves it,” Navarrete, 28, said.

Earlier in the evening, Emiliano Vargas (8-0, 7 KOs), son of former two-time light middleweight champion Fernando Vargas, remained undefeated with a second-round knockout of Brandon Mendoza (6-3).

After dropping him twice in the first round, Vargas finished Mendoza with a pair of devastating right hands that put him on the canvas. Referee Harvey Dock stopped the fight when Mendoza stumbled and was left standing just 57 seconds into the second round.