Shakur Stevenson can’t find footage of Edwin De Los Santos’ lone loss as a professional.

After watching William Foster III fight Henry Lebron on November 4, though, Stevenson can’t understand how De Los Santos lost a split decision to Foster in January 2022. Foster defeated De Los Santos by the same score, 77-74, on two scorecards.

De Los Santos won 77-74 on the other card, but he lost an eight-round battle of unbeaten prospects that Showtime televised as part of its “ShoBox: The New Generation” series from Caribe Royale Orlando in Orlando, Florida.

Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs), a two-division champion from Newark, New Jersey, and the Dominican Republic’s De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) will fight Thursday night for the vacant WBC lightweight title. ESPN will air their 12-round, 135-pound championship clash as the main event of a doubleheader scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. EDT at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The heavily favored Stevenson expects to encounter a much sharper De Los Santos than the fighter that Foster defeated. Foster (16-1, 10 KOs, 1 NC) suffered his first professional loss to Lebron (19-0, 10 KOs), a Puerto Rican southpaw who outboxed the New Haven, Connecticut native and won a 10-round majority decision at Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada.

“Oh my God! He was so terrible,” Stevenson told krikya360.com in reference to Foster’s loss to Lebron. “That’s what didn’t make sense to me. I watched [Foster] fight and I’m like, ‘How the hell did he find a way to beat De Los Santos?’ When I watch De Los Santos fight, he looks like a really good fighter. So, it kinda didn’t add up to me, but man, [Foster] was terrible when he fought Henry Lebron. He was terrible. Honestly, even watching the fight, they act like it was a closer fight. I thought Henry dominated the fight.”

Lebron beat Foster by majority decision because judge Max De Luca scored their fight a draw, 95-95. Judges Eric Cheek (96-94) and David Sutherland (99-91) scored Lebron the winner on the Efe Ajagba-Joe Goodall undercard.

De Los Santos is 3-0 since his loss to Foster. The 24-year-old contender’s career changed for the better when he upset then-unbeaten Jose Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) by third-round knockout on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Luis Ortiz undercard in September 2022 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

De Los Santos got up from a second-round knockdown and dropped Mexico’s Valenzuela once apiece in the second and third rounds. The Brooklyn resident landed enough unanswered punches to cause referee Ray Corona to halt the action while a vulnerable Valenzuela was still standing, 1:08 into the third round.

In his most recent bout, De Los Santos outboxed Joseph Adorno (18-3-2, 15 KOs) and won their 10-round bout by unanimous decision July 8 at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

“I think that he’s a good fighter,” Stevenson said of De Los Santos. “I think that he’s a boxer-puncher, he’s a thinker and I could see it being a chess match early.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.