Did Shakur Stevenson fight Edwin De Los Santos with an injury? Bob Arum reveals reason behind 'stinker' bout

Bob Arum has revealed why Shakur Stevenson vs. Edwin De Los Santos was an uninteresting bout, stating that the former was visiting doctors for a shoulder issue ahead of the fight.

'Sugar' returned earlier this week to Las Vegas to try and earn his first title up at lightweight. Back for the first time since a knockout win over Shuichiro Yoshino in April, he faced Edwin De Los Santos on Thursday night.

Despite fans' excitement at seeing the former super featherweight champion back, the bout was a damp squib. In terms of actual punch stats, the fight is among one of the worst in boxing history. In fact, De Los Santos landed just 40 punches across 12 rounds, a Compubox record.

After 12 rounds of non-action, Shakur Stevenson vs. Edwin De Los Santos came to a close. The former super featherweight champion scored a unanimous decision win, but it felt like everyone who watched the fight were the real losers. However, there's a reason why the bout was so poor.

In an interview with BoxingScene post-fight, Bob Arum revealed that Stevenson entered the bout with a shoulder injury. The promoter believes that's the reason the fight was terrible, adding:

“We had him visiting doctors in the weeks before the fight. I think he therefore fought a very cautious fight. But it was a stinker.”

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Shakur Stevenson apologizes for his performance against Edwin De Los Santos

Shakur Stevenson vs. Edwin De Los Santos was a poor fight, and 'Sugar' has now apologized for it.

The title fight on Thursday night was a massive one for the former super featherweight champion. While Stevenson's popularity hasn't taken off, he's seen as someone who can become a future all-time great.

That is seen in the amount of respect that the youngster gets from boxing legends. In fact, Floyd Mayweather, Terence Crawford, and Andre Ward were present to watch him become a three-division champion on Thursday night.

Speaking post-fight, Shakur Stevenson issued an apology to those boxing legends. Along with that, the New Jersey native admitted that his performance was simply a bad one.

As quoted by journalist Michael Benson on X/Twitter, the new WBC lightweight champion stated:

"I appreciate Floyd Mayweather, I apologize to him, I apologize to Andre Ward, and I apologize to Terence Crawford. They're all my idols and they came out to see a great performance, but I put on a bad one."