Edwin De Los Santos angrily declared, "I came to fight, he came for a track meet," following Shakur Stevenson's 12-round title battle in Las Vegas; Stevenson emerged victorious by unanimous decisio
n, but Navarrete required two knockdowns to secure a majority draw against Robson Conceicao.In Las Vegas, Shakur Stevenson defeated Edwin De Los Santos by unanimous decision to claim the vacant WBC lightweight title and become the first world champion in three divisions.
However, it was a tentative, slow-moving performance at the T-Mobile Arena in comparison to the exciting majority draw between Emanuel Navarrete and Robson Conceicao on the undercard.Terence Crawford and Andre Ward, two outstanding boxers, surrounding Stevenson as he entered the ring. Although he is undoubtedly a player of the highest caliber, he did not shine against De Los Santos as he has in the past.Since he was a southpaw, Stevenson mostly used his lead right punch and footwork. He displayed glimpses of his potential with well-placed jabs. However, he was far too sparing when it came to his backhand power punches.
The two southpaws' styles did not complement one another, and De Los Santos also had trouble exerting pressure on the American.
Stevenson prevailed in a unanimous ruling, with the judges voting 115-113 and 116-112 twice. on the judges' scorecards.
It left De Los Santos frustrated. He condemned Stevenson afterwards.
"I came to fight, he came for a track meet," he said. "He was gifted a title but I am the champion of the people."
Stevenson won the belt, but did not allow himself much in the way of celebration.
"I had a bad performance tonight," he admitted. "I wasn't feeling too good."
That suggested he did have some sort of ailment in the contest. But Stevenson provided no further details.
"I don't make no excuses," he said. " I came here, got the victory, that's all I wanted to do.
"I got to go back to the drawing board and work on a lot of things and come back."
Navarrete came through another thrilling battle. He needed two knockdowns to hold Robson Conceicao to a majority draw and retain the WBO super-featherweight title.
Brazil's Conceicao, an Olympic gold medallist in 2016, was an active and determined challenger. He outworked Navarrete, a rare feat.
But Navarrete responded, ramping up the action and clubbing Conceicao off his feet twice.
The Mexican looped long punches to the body, and directed his attack to the head, with his efforts taking a toll. Conceicao was on uncertain legs at the end of the 11th round. But that did not stop them from engaging furiously in the last.
One judge scored 114-112 for Navarrete, but the other two marked it 113-113, leaving the contest a majority draw.
"I'm happy to come away with the belt," Navarrete said afterwards. "I give a lot of credit to Robson Conceicao. We both did what we said we were going to do. We came out here and we gave the fans a wonderful fight.
"He's a tremendous fighter, his technique is next level and that's what made it so hard," he added.
"I would definitely give Robson a rematch, because he deserves it."
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