Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela scored a brutal second round knockout to avenge his 2022 loss to Edwin De Los Santos. The fight was the main event last Saturday for Zuffa Boxing 8 from the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The two fighters wasted little time figuring each other out with each throwing hard shots in the first round. De Los Santos appeared to hurt Valenzuela early in the round in a tense bout. As the opening round came to a close, Valenzuela landed a hard right hook and caught his foe’s attention. In the second round Valenzuela came out aggressively to see what De Los Santos had left.
The two southpaws traded right hooks and it was De Los Santos that got the worst of it. Another hook dropped De Los Santos for the count and he was badly hurt. The main event proved to be an exciting and short contest. Their initial encounter was only a three fight where each touched the canvas. The victory is a great achievement for Valenzuela who is looking to get back into the title mix after losing his title in 2025 to Gary Antuanne Russell. Valenzuela has been taking on stern competition on a regular basis since 2022. He is now a battle tested contender with victories over De Los Santos and championship caliber Isaac Cruz.
For De Los Santos this was a significant setback. The Dominican slugger had a strong performance against Shakur Stevenson in 2023. Following the decision loss, Edwin did not fight again until 2025 in a fight that ended inside the first round. The inactivity has hampered his momentum and this brutal loss puts him in the wrong direction. Fortunately, Zuffa Boxing has a pattern of giving defeated fighters follow up fights for redemption. However, he is unlikely to get an easy touch so it will likely be sink or swim next up. For a moment in the opening round it appeared that the rust was not a factor as he caught Valenzuela. The success was short lived.
In the co-main event undefeated featherweight Omar Trinidad defeated the former world titlist Jerwin Ancajas who moved up. Ancajas is a fighter that I used to enjoy watching on ESPN when he was under the Top Rank banner. He held IBF Super Flyweight title and defended it 9 times from 2016-2022. He has since faded from the spotlight and got the call at age 34 to take on the up and coming Trinidad. Trinidad fought in January on a Zuffa card and scored three knockdowns on the way to a decision victory. He is 30 and debuted in 2018 entering his 23rd professional bout. Trinidad seems like a late bloomer still working his way up at 30.
Ancajas proved to be a tricky vet in a fight I had even after six rounds. Ancajas was visibly smaller in the ring and spent the early rounds giving ground. His sharp counters kept him in the fight though his inactivity costed him some early rounds. As the fight drew on Trinidad began having more success. He was dependent on his right hand early on in the fight and had to box cautiously to avoid sneaky counters. In round four he finally hurt Ancajas and started to be the boss but it was short-lived. Ancajas recovered well to be competitive.
As the fight drew on, Trinidad opened up the arsenal a bit more. Rather than just throwing the right hand down the middle he began to loop it around the guard. Then in another round his right uppercut began to score. After that his left hook became a prominent punch. Later down the stretch he landed a hard left uppercut. Round nine was a round he cruised in landing rapid combinations and began to assert himself. By this point, Trinidad had pulled away on my score card having won six of the nine completed rounds. Ancajas continued to try and had moments but was ultimately out worked over matched. I was disappointed when I realized the tenth round was the final round; I assumed it was a twelve round fight and had not been paying attention.
The tenth round saw some good closing action. In the final minute Trinidad rocked Ancajas who was all but out on his feet. Somehow the aging Filipino did not go down and weathered the storm. After recovering, Ancajas began to fire back with shots of his own. The finale was exciting and Ancajas showed plenty of courage. Trinidad made me a fan with his punch variation and ability to box and punch. At the conclusion I had the fight scored 97-93 for Trinidad which mirrored the three judges who all had the same scores. I am not sure if we all go there the same way. I felt Trinidad had swept the back half of the fight.
I caught the final two rounds of the Cain Sandoval vs Brandun Lee fight. Sandoval was entering off a loss in his first Zuffa Boxing appearance and Lee entered undefeated at 30-0. In the final two rounds they stood toe to toe and slugged it out. Sandoval took home the majority decision in a nice rebound performance. This fight exemplifies what Zuffa Boxing has done so far. They take interesting matches on paper that have often materialized in competitive, back and forth fights. Hopefully Zuffa sticks to this format and rewards Lee for putting on a good show and gives him a chance at another good fight.
There are a lot of boxing fans who hate Zuffa Boxing and want it to fail. I understand some of their sentiments. However, I have enjoyed the product they have put forth so far. They are eight cards in and all eight have had some fun match ups. There have not been many showcase type of fights where one guy is so far out of his depth. On paper, just about every match up was competitive. I look forward to seeing more shows of theirs. It reminds me a lot of Friday Night Fights, in a good way.
Jersey George's Boxing Blog 
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