Jose Valenzuela to get shot at redemption in Edwin De Los Santos rematch
May 8, 2026 • 9:03 AM ET
Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela has insisted his 2022 knockout loss to Edwin De Los Santos was not a true reflection of the fighter he is.
The recent world titleholder will now have a chance to prove it, his rematch with De Los Santos headlining the June 28 Zuffa Boxing 8 fight card at The Cosmopolitan Resort’s Chelsea Ballroom on Paramount+.
BoxingScene learned Friday that former WBA 140lbs belt holder Valenzuela, 15-3 (9 KOs), will meet the Dominican Republic’s former lightweight title challenger De Los Santos, 17-2 (15 KOs), in Zuffa Boxing’s first US card outside the Meta Apex, also in Las Vegas.
Welterweight Brandun Lee, 30-0 (23 KOs), will also land on the card, BoxingScene learned.
The Mexico-born Valenzuela, 26, opened Zuffa Boxing’s first card, defeating Diego Torres by unanimous decision February 1 at the Apex.
He told BoxingScene previously that he was overconfident when he first met De Los Santos at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, suffering a third-round knockout after getting dropped twice previously in the bout.
Before defeating Mexico’s Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz to capture the 140lbs belt in Los Angeles in 2024, Valenzuela said, “Everybody’s overlooking me because of the De Los Santos fight, but if you knew the conditions I fought in, anybody would’ve lost. People are saying I’m chinny. I don’t think I’m chinny, because he put a lot of punches on me. … I had surgery two weeks before the fight on my leg, had a sleeve on, antibiotics.
“I don’t want to put anyone on blast. I’ll take the blame for it. Being young, having won every fight, always being in the lights … I got caught up in the moment, and [the loss] was a good, humbling experience.”
Valenzuela lost again, to Chris Colbert, in his next bout.
In 2023, De Los Santos, 26, later lost to four-division champion Shakur Stevenson for the WBC lightweight belt in one of the more inactive bouts in recent times, then returned to score a first-round TKO of Eliot Chavez on December 13 before joining the Zuffa Boxing stable.
Upon the signing, Valenzuela let it be known he was seeking the rematch with De Los Santos, which he now receives.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
Lance Pugmire has been a full-time boxing writer for nearly 20 years, serving now as BoxingScene’s U.S. Senior Writer and assistant producer for ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” Pugmire capped a near 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times (sports investigations, NHL/MLB beat work, law enforcement/courts and boxing/UFC) to join The Athletic, and then USA Today. Pugmire’s stint at The Times started with the first Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight and the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jnr then-record pay-per-view, leading through a slew of ringside assignments at major bouts, including Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Canelo and the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. Lance’s appreciation for boxing is rooted in his admiration and appreciation for the fighters, gladiators who have proven to be the most forthcoming and candid of all the athletes he has interviewed over a career dating to 1990. Lance was honored to be named the 2022 winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence and he’s collected many BWAA writing awards in categories ranging from breaking news to deep-dive long features.
