Zuffa Boxing 08 Results: Valenzuela Dishes Up Revenge In Rematch

Call him Right Hook Rayo: Jose Valenzuela drilled Edwin De Los Santos with right hooks, ending their rematch in round two in the Zuffa Boxing 08 main event at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan Sunday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: Ed Mulholland/ Zuffa Boxing 08
Call him Right Hook Rayo: Jose Valenzuela drilled Edwin De Los Santos with right hooks, ending their rematch in round two in the Zuffa Boxing 08 main event at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan Sunday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: Ed Mulholland/Zuffa Boxing
by Gayle Falkenthal, Boxing Editor

What to Know

  • Zuffa Boxing 08 delivered a statement win as Jose Valenzuela made quick work of Edwin De Los Santos in their rematch Sunday.
  • The rest of the card saw underdogs prevail and several favorites struggle on Sunday in Las Vegas.
  • Valenzuela and Troy Hirsch Jr. were awarded Performance of the Night bonuses for their wicked knockout wins. Cain Sandoval and Brandun Lee were named Fight of the Night.

Mission Accomplished for Rayo Valenzuela

Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela of Seattle, Washington got his revenge and then some in a rematch of his 2022 third-round knockout loss to Edwin De Los Santos of the Dominican Republic. 

Valenzuela (16-3, 10 KOs) delivered delicious payback, going one better by stopping De Los Santos (17-3, 15 KOs) cold at 2:05 of the second round.

“I was a kid, a boy, when we first fought. I grew up. I evolved. This is an example to everybody out there. You can better yourself. You can lose, come back, evolve, come back a better fighter and a better human being. That’s what I did, man,” said Valenzuela.

Valenzuela was a highly touted prospect when he suffered his first loss to De Los Santos. Zuffa Boxing is the fresh start he was looking for.

De Los Santos got rolling quickly, teeing up and landing solid southpaw left hooks. But De Los Santos has fought just a single round since his competitive loss to Shakur Stevenson in 2023. After Valenzuela got a look at the 2026 version of De Los Santos and checked his timing, Valenzuela knew what he wanted to do.

Near the end of the first round, Valenzuela rocked De Los Santos with several excellent hooks at the end of the first round.

Valenzuela wasted no time going right back to what worked for him. One minute into the second round, Valenzuela buzzed De Los Santos with a right hook. Now he had to prove he wouldn’t get overconfident as he did in their first meeting, won by De Los Santos.

Trinidad Takes Down Veteran Ancajas

Passing of the torch: Omar Trinidad defeated veteran Jerwin Ancajas, then called out featherweight champion Angelo Leo. Photo: Ed Mulholland/ Zuffa Boxing 08
Passing of the torch: Omar Trinidad defeated veteran Jerwin Ancajas, then called out featherweight champion Angelo Leo. Photo: Ed Mulholland/Zuffa Boxing

In the co-main event, undefeated Omar Trinidad of Los Angeles (21-0-2, 14 KOs) made former super flyweight world champion Jerwin Ancajas of the Philippines (38-5-2, 25 KOs) show his age in a fight at featherweight. Trinidad had too much of everything, including size, youth, strength, and speed, for the veteran 34-year-old, winning the decision by scores of 97-93 across the board.

“I went up with a seasoned veteran, a former world champion, and I feel like my skills got better,” said Trinidad of the win. “My reach was too much for him, my speed in and out.”

Trinidad’s four-inch height and reach advantage at 5-10 seemed double that of the 5-6 Ancajas. It’s said that some fighters get old overnight. Ancajas’s veteran skills had faded. The punishment from Trinidad added up round after round.

Trinidad nearly stopped Ancajas with vicious power shots that had Ancajas wobbled in the final round. With referee Tony Weeks hovering, Ancajas stayed on his feet to hear the final bell. “I smelled blood in the water, I knew he was hurt,” said Trinidad. “I’m glad I shared the ring with him today.”

Cain Sandoval Passes The Test With Win Over Brandun Lee

Cain Sandoval stepped up the punishment in the second half of his fight against Brandun Lee at Zuffa Boxing 08. Photo: Ed Mulholland/ Zuffa Boxing 08
Cain Sandoval stepped up the punishment in the second half of his fight against Brandun Lee at Zuffa Boxing 08. Photo: Ed Mulholland/Zuffa Boxing

“Sugar” Cain Sandoval of Sacramento lost his Zuffa debut to the surprising Julian “Hammer Hands” Rodriguez. The 23-year-old Sandoval didn’t like it and came in on Sunday determined not to let it happen again.

Sandoval (18-1, 15 KOs) regrouped and put in the work for ten hard rounds against former prospect of the year Brandun Lee of Irvine, California (30-1, 23 KOs) to break him down and win by majority decision. The scores were far closer than the fight appeared with the card from Steve Weisfeld even, and two for Sandoval 97-93, and 96-94.

The former prospect of the year Lee recently graduated with his bachelor’s degree and planned on rededicating himself to boxing. But Sandoval put Lee to his hardest test, and he couldn’t pass it. After slowly stepping up the pace in the first three rounds which were all scored for Lee, Sandoval outworked Lee round after round, growing more confident and landing more power punches.

Lee recognized the fight was slipping away from him. He dug down, took the hardest shots, but never gave up in what became his first loss as a pro. Sandoval landed 176 total punches against 136 total punches for Lee.

Both men were taken to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas as a precaution after the punishing fight.READ MORE: Beatdown in Brooklyn: Boots Ennis Stops Zayas in Seven

Zuffa Boxing 08 Undercard Results: Upsets and Knockouts

The first upset of the night came in the featured fight of the undercard. Andres Teran of Mexico (19-2, 14 KOs) extended his 10-fight win streak to 11 after signing with Zuffa, taking out prospect Floyd “Cash Flow” Diaz of Las Vegas (14-1, 3 KOs) with a sixth round knockout, his first loss as a pro.

Diaz had won all five rounds on the scorecard and was winning the sixth round until Teran caught Diaz with a clear right hand to the chin, spinning Diaz’s head around. Teran wasn’t going to let his opportunity get by him. He pounced on Diaz and pounded on him until referee Thomas Taylor moved in to save Diaz from further damage.

Lightweight Tony Hirsch Jr. proved his upset victory over Robert Meriwether III at Zuffa Boxing 05 wasn’t a one-time event. Hirsch Jr. delivered an impressive knockout with three successive right hands in the third round, dropping Jaybrio Pe Benito, a native of Hawaii fighting out of Hollywood, California (7-1, 5 KOs), face-first on the canvas.

Po Benito came in four pounds over the bantamweight limit. Hirsch didn’t object to the fight moving forward. Po Benito was within the 24-hour rehydration limit, but a difficult weigh cut may have contributed to first loss. Hirsch of Oakland (9-0-2, 5 KOs) is the kind of athlete perfectly suited to the Zuffa approach.

Welterweight Damoni Cato-Cain of Oakland (10-1-2, 7 KOs) won his second Zuffa Boxing appearance by decision over Vernon “Sub Zero” Brown of Chicago (14-3-1, 10 KOs).

Cato-Cain took out Brown, a 37-year-old southpaw who won a surprising knockout upset in June over power-punching Armenian Gor Yeritsvan. But he didn’t have the same spark against boxer Cato-Cain, who won by scores of 79-73, 78-74, 78-74.

After fighting to a draw in their first fight, it was Adrian Serrano (7-0-2, 3 KOs) who got the better of Brady Ochoa (9-1-1, 2 KOs), winning by decision in their six-round lightweight rematch. Scores were 59-55, 59-55, and 58-56.

Uzbek heavyweight Jakhongir Zokirov of Uzbekistan (2-0, 2 KOs) had been out of the ring since his first professional fight in 2023. No matter, as the 23-year-old Zokirov buzzed Zach Spiller of Houston (5-1, 4 KOs) near the end of the first round with just enough time to spare to lay on the punishment and force a referee stoppage.

Observations as Zuffa Boxing works its way to double-digit cards. Having a ticket-buying audience in the house, even in a small venue like The Chelsea, makes a big difference in atmosphere for the viewers at home.

Room for improvement: The stripped-down, sad-looking uniform trunks are simply terrible. They cheapen the production. Call it a failed experiment and let your competitors express themselves with their own fight kits.