Although Frank Martin recently hit back at criticism aimed at him for pulling out of a supposedly agreed November 16 fight with Shakur Stevenson – with Martin writing on social media, “I ain’t duck s**t” – Stevenson has continued laying into his would have been rival. Taking to social media himself, Stevenson, who is now expected to face Edwin De Los Santos of The Dominican Republic in a fight that will contest the vacant WBC lightweight title, praised De Los Santos’ heart.
And Stevenson wrote how he believes that De Los Santos, 16-1(14) will give him more trouble than the unbeaten Martin would have done had their fight happened:
We must now wait and see whether or not De Los Santos and his people go ahead and call Stevenson, accepting the fight. Stevenson has had a tough time landing himself a good, testing fight at 135, with the former champion at featherweight and super featherweight having been swerved by a number of top contenders. Is Stevenson that good, that special that so many fighters are avoiding him? It does look like it. But how can Stevenson show us his best stuff if he cannot get the top guys at 135 pounds to face him?
De Los Santos, a southpaw like Stevenson, has never been stopped, and his sole loss came via a split decision back in January of last year. Since then, the 23-year-old has won three in a row, with two of these wins coming against unbeaten fighters. A fight with Stevenson would make for a big step up in class for De Los Santos, and he will almost certainly be a big, big underdog in the fight, should he take it. But so would a lot of guys be big underdogs if they fought 26-year-old Stevenson, 20-0(10).
Let’s see if De Los Santos does actually go through with the fight, this when a number of other fighters have opted not to do so.
