LAS VEGAS — Edwin De Los Santos is not done with Jose Valenzuela, and neither is his management team.
Adrian Clark, CEO of Fighters First Management and De Los Santos' manager, announced Tuesday that he will file an appeal with the Nevada Athletic Commission over the result of Sunday's rematch between De Los Santos and Valenzuela at Zuffa Boxing 08. The move comes after the commission already looked into it. NSAC executive director Jeff Mullen told The Ring's Mike Coppinger that multi-angle replay showed the shot mostly landing on De Los Santos' shoulder with only a graze to the chin, and that it had no bearing on the outcome. Clark says he has heard that same dismissal more than once, and he disagrees with it.
Valenzuela stopped De Los Santos in the second round at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan, dropping him with a right hook at the 2:05 mark. Referee Thomas Taylor's count never got De Los Santos back to his feet, handing Valenzuela the statement knockout he had been chasing since their first meeting four years ago. Clark's issue is not with that knockdown punch, but with a follow-up shot he contends landed while De Los Santos was already down.
"Rules are rules. It doesn't matter where the shot landed or how hard it was," Clark said. "When a fighter is on a knee or down, it is illegal to hit him. Edwin was robbed of the opportunity to recover from the blatantly illegal shot. The punch that knocked him down was a good shot by Valenzuela. However, if De Los Santos was out, the referee would have immediately waived the count and called the fight. Everyone watching that fight knows that is a foul."
Joshua Hedges - Zuffa Boxing
Referee Thomas Taylor moves in to separate Valenzuela and De Los Santos moments after the knockdown.
Clark framed the appeal as bigger than one result, pointing to Nevada's standing as the commission that oversees a majority of the sport's marquee events. "My petition is based around the protection of fighters," he said. "If the commission for the state that lands a majority of the big fights says that an illegal shot has no bearing on the outcome of a fight, that's a problem for the sport."
The situation carries an ironic echo for De Los Santos and Valenzuela, who first fought in September 2022 in a bout that produced a foul of its own. De Los Santos connected with Valenzuela after he had gone through the ropes, and that infraction was recognized in real time. "The difference is, the foul was recognized, called, Edwin was deducted a point and Valenzuela had time to recover," Clark said.
De Los Santos said he will let the appeal play out but is not leaning on the illegal punch as an excuse for how Sunday's fight ended. "I got caught with a good shot. I was stunned, but not hurt. I won't make any excuses," he said. "Eventually I'm going to get the opportunity to fight him again."
Clark's appeal is expected to be filed with the Nevada Athletic Commission on Wednesday. Whatever the outcome, a trilogy fight between De Los Santos and Valenzuela now looks like the likely next chapter in a rivalry that has gone back and forth on questionable finishes in both meetings.