Edwin De Los Santos' manager has filed an appeal following his fighter's second-round knockout loss to Jose Valenzuela at Sunday's Zuffa Boxing card. The appeal is seeking to overturn the loss to a no-contest on the grounds that Valenzuela connected with a punch while De Los Santos was down on the canvas.
"Rules are rules. It doesn't matter where the shot landed or how hard it was," Adrian Clark, De Los Santos' manager, said in a statement. "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."
Valenzuela dropped De Los Santos with a right hand during an exchange. De Los Santos sank slowly to a knee when Valenzuela appeared to connect with a left hand. De Los Santos was counted out by referee Thomas Taylor.
"It's my job to make this appeal," Clark said. "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.
"My petition is based around the protection of fighters. 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 fight was a rematch of their 2022 bout, which De Los Santos won by third-round knockout. Clark cited that De Los Santos was penalized and deducted a point in that fight for hitting Valenzuela while he was down. Regardless of how the appeal turns out, De Los Santos has stated that he is looking to face Valenzuela in a rubber match.
"I will let the appeal go through the proper channels, but I am not going to focus on the illegal hit," De Los Santos said. "I got caught with a good shot. I was stunned, but not hurt. I won't make any excuses. Eventually I'm going to get the opportunity to fight him again."