On Sunday at The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, De Los Santos fought and lost to Valenzuela by stoppage in the second round. However, after the Dominican had already hit the floor, Valenzuela landed one left hand to the chin/shoulder area of his opponent.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission's (NSAC) executive director Jeff Mullen told The Ring's Mike Coppinger that after replays from multiple angles, the punch grazed De Los Santos' chin before mostly connecting with the shoulder, bearing no impact on the result.

Team De Los Santos, however, is taking action.

“It was a good shot by Rayo but as the ref told us before the fight, if you hit a guy while he’s down, there’s no conversation and no warnings right now, it’s an instant DQ,” Adrian Clark, manager of De Los Santos, said. “Edwin was clearly hit while he was down.”

Both De Los Santos (17-3, 15 KOs) and Valenzuela (16-3, 10 KOs) have history. The two fought back in 2022 and it ended in a third-round stoppage victory for the former.

Heading into their rematch, the lightweight contender believed he could do the same. According to Clark, his fighter is more than capable of beating Valenzuela but wasn’t treated fairly. Now, he plans on taking the matter into his own hands.

“I talked to the commissioner of Vegas and even though they're acknowledging that he was hit while he was down, what I’ve been told twice is that him being hit after he went down had no impact on the fight,” Clark said.

“The executive director just kind of shrugged it off. But it’s my job to make a complaint. For now, Rayo got the knockout but my thing is, rules are rules. He got hit clearly after he was down. A complaint will be made. We’ll see what happens.”