By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
Opening the pay-per-view telecast, Dominican lightweight Edwin De Los Santos (15-1, 14 KO’s) made a statement by stopping previously unbeaten José “El Rayo” Valenzuela (12-1, 8 KO’s) of Seattle, Washington by way of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico in a wild one. Off to a fast start, Valenzuela and De Los Santos exchanged, later in the round the Dominican fighter caught Valenzuela with a straight and stopped his momentum. What a wild round it was in the second, as Rayo dropped De Los Santos to begin the the second round but shortly after De Los Santos returned the favor as he sent Valenzuela to the canvas. De Los Santos dropped Valenzeula a second time to begin the third. He beat the count but De Los Santos finished him off at 1:08 of the third. De Los Santos replaced former world champion Jezreel Corrales on short notice and made the most of it! Valenzuela was a 10:1 favorite.
Hard loss for Valenzuela, but he and his team took it well, that’s actually the first step in coming back, being mentally strong enough to congratulate the other team. That’s why Josue Vargas and Gabriel Flores turned into punching bags, they were and are in denial about what they could do in the ring.
They didn’t take it well at all. Matter of fact. El Rayo looked kinda pissed that the fight was waived off.
Wow!!!
Hard to imagine De Los Santos has a SD loss against Foster, III. De Los Santos had no fear of Valenzuela and took it to him.
De Los Santos will always give Valenzuela fits and danger. In the gym, Valenzuela will need to work on his defense and jabs.
Joan Guzman is my favorite fighter from the DR, but De Los Santos may later become my favorite fighter from the DR…Wow!!
Valenzuela’s defense is chronically poor. You’re right. Huge liability.
That kind of loss spells real trouble for Valenzuela, and De Los Santos spells real trouble for anyone in the lightweight division. I live for these kinds of upsets!
Adding De Los Santos to my list of fighters to watch, had never heard of him but will take notice now
I never did like the way Valenzuela keeps his chin high in the air while punching. He got away with it against lesser competition, but I had a feeling it would be reached when he stepped up.
De Los Santos looked quick and powerful and was getting to Valenzuela first and often. He often won the exchanges, so it was a matter of time before Valenzuela got stopped. He was getting hit too cleanly and had no defense against the accurate and hard punching of De Los Santos.
Back to the drawing board for Valenzuela. He really needs to keep that chin tucked in when on the attack. That’s a flaw he really needs to overcome if he goes against anyone in the top ten.
Sometimes you see those guy come from the DR with those big KO records and they can neither punch nor fight. De Los Santos can definitely punch. He landed a tiny right hook before that first knockdown that was a thing of beauty.
Damn! Just saw the fight and Rayo got blasted!! Referee did a great job stopping it as he was about to get KTFO!! IDK why he decided to stand there so early and trade with a puncher?? Should have definitely boxed first and setup some combos. Wow!!!!
And Rayo had the ref in his favor you can tell. He even told Rayo he stopped the fight so that he would not get embarrassed.
Don’t fall for any of that lip service son.
Body language says everything.
This was a career altering ass wooping.