Keyshawn Davis expects to encounter an extremely motivated Edwin De Los Santos on June 7.

De Los Santos drew criticism for his part in a forgettable fight against Shakur Stevenson for an unclaimed WBC lightweight title in November 2023. The Dominican southpaw couldn’t cut off the ring and allowed an elusive Stevenson to out-box him from a comfortable distance.

Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) won a unanimous decision 18 months ago at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. De Los Santos suffered his second professional defeat that night and endured a challenging, lengthy layoff thereafter.

A blood clot in his left leg hospitalized De Los Santos and prohibited him from training for three months late last year. His medical setback was one of the primary reasons that the Allentown, Pennsylvania resident happily accepted what will surely be a difficult fight versus Davis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC), despite that he clearly could use some non-championship rounds to become sharper.

“He’s a good fighter,” Davis told The Ring. “On paper, one of my best opponents, of course. I feel like being that his last fight didn’t go so well that he feel like he got a lot to prove. Of course, him having that layoff, I feel like he feel like he got a lot to show. He wanna show more. He wanna show a different De Los Santos. So, I really feel like he gonna come out there and try to steal the show.

“He gonna go out there and try to knock my head off. He gonna go out there and try to put on a great performance. You know what I’m saying? And that ain’t gonna do nothing but make it a real entertaining fight, because of his back story and why he in this fight right here.”

De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) has lost only to Stevenson and William Foster (19-2, 11 KOs), who was undefeated when he edged De Los Santos by split decision in an eight-rounder Showtime televised in January 2022 from Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.

The hard-hitting contender also knocked out Mexican southpaw Jose Valenzuela in the third round of their September 2022 bout at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

De Los Santos, 25, got up from a second-round knockdown to stop Valenzuela (14-3, 9 KOs) in that all-action slugfest on the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz undercard. Valenzuela eventually won the WBA super lightweight title from Mexico’s Isaac Cruz (27-3-1, 1 KOs), whom Valenzuela beat by split decision last August 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

Davis destroyed Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk (19-1, 9 KOs) in his last fight. The 2021 Olympic silver medalist won the WBO 135-pound championship by knocking out Berinchyk in the fourth round February 14 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Davis, 27, is ranked second among The Ring’s contenders for its lightweight title, which is vacant. De Los Santos’ inactivity and Davis’ successful four-fight stretch over the past 15 months have helped make Davis at least an 8-1 favorite according to most sportsbooks.

ESPN will televise Davis-De Los Santos as the main event of a doubleheader from Scope Arena in Davis’ hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. Lightweight contender Abdullah Mason (18-0, 16 KOs), a southpaw from Cleveland, is scheduled to battle Namibian veteran Jeremia Nakathila (26-4, 21 KOs) in the network’s 10-round co-feature.