Atlantic City, NJ—–In the televised Show Time opener, lightweight contender Edwin De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) earned a unanimous decision over Joseph Adorno (17-3-2, 14 KOs) after 10 rounds of action. De Los Santos made it three straight victories by scores of 100-90 twice and 99-91.
De Los Santos wasn’t spectacular Saturday night, but he was consistent and clearly outboxed Adorno in their 10 rounds match. He landed 62.8% of his power punches while holding Adorno to single digit landed punches in their brutal contest.
The Dominican southpaw dictated distance and pace of the fight, consistently connected with his right hook and avoided Adorno’s power punches for most of their 10-round lightweight fight at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater.
“The strategy was to box him, but he’s a southpaw and he was hard to figure out,” said Adorno. “He’s the best southpaw I’ve faced. He was well-prepared and knew how to manage the ring.”
The Santo Domingo native knocked out two undefeated fighters in each of his previous two fights, Jose Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) and Luis Acosta (13-1, 12 KOs) and he is starting to make a name for himself in the boxing world.
De Los Santos, who resides in Reading, Pennsylvania, entered the ring as slightly more than a 3-1 favorite according to most sportsbooks and he didn’t disappoint.
“We came prepared to show our boxing skills in this fight tonight and that’s exactly what we did,” said De Los Santos. “The game plan was to keep him at bay and to box him all night and to counter him when he pressed the attack. I wanted to show the boxing world that I have boxing ability. I’m not just a big puncher. I’m a boxer also.”
Fans booed in the 10th round due to a lack of activity, but De Los Santos seemed satisfied to cruise and savor his evident win.
A ringside physician took a look at Adorno after the eighth round. He allowed Adorno to continue for the ninth round, when neither fighter produced much offense.
Adorno landed a right and De Los Santos connected with a left in an exchange a little less than a minute into the eighth round. De Los Santos landed a hard jab that staggered Adorno in the eighth round.
Yet another right hook by De Los Santos landed with just under 45 seconds to go in the seventh round. De Los Santos’ counter right hook knocked Adorno off balance barely 20 seconds into the seventh round.
Adorno split De Los Santos’ guard with a right hand with about 10 seconds to go in the fourth round. He knocked De Los Santos off balance with a left hook about five seconds later.
De Los Santos looked relaxed during the sixth round, when he mostly made Adorno miss with his punches. The most effective punch of that round was the left with which De Los Santos split Adorno’s guard with just over 35 seconds to go in it.
De Los Santos and Adorno missed most of their punches during the fifth round. Fitch warned Adorno for hitting De Los Santos with an illegal body blow to his back about 45 seconds into the fifth round.
His dominance showed up in the punch stats as he out-landed Adorno 144 to 37, including an impressive 63% connect rate on power shots.
With the victory, De Los Santos continued to set his sights on the top fighters in his weight division.
“I have to just talk to my promoter about what’s next, but I’ll take care of anyone at 135,” said De Los Santos. “I have the potential to be more disciplined and show my boxing skills even more.”
