NORFOLK, Virginia — Sampson Lewkowicz doesn’t think Keyshawn Davis realizes how difficult of a fight he has accepted for what was supposed to be his first defense of the WBO lightweight title.

Davis is a minus-1000 favorite over Edwin De Los Santos according to most sportsbooks. Lewkowicz, whose company promotes De Los Santos, is still confident that the Dominican southpaw can do what many of his overlooked contenders have done in the past by pulling off an upset in Davis’ hometown Saturday night.

“I think it will be a tough fight for both of them, and I will not be surprised if De Los Santos wins,” Lewkowicz told The Ring before Davis came in 4.3 pounds overweight Friday afternoon. “He’s in unbelievable shape. And besides that, whenever you see me in the corner you’re guaranteed to see a fight. Win or lose, it’ll be a fight.”

Lewkowicz credited Davis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) for his recent run, which included a fourth-round destruction of Denys Berinchyk to win the WBO 135-pound championship Feb. 14 at Madison Square Garden’s Theater in New York.

De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) hasn’t fought in 18 months, but his promoter is nevertheless convinced that the skilled, strong southpaw is a much more formidable opponent than Ukraine’s Berinchyk (19-1, 9 KOs) or Argentina’s Gustavo Lemos (29-2, 19 KOs), whom Davis knocked out in the second round in November at Scope Arena.

“Keyshawn is a good fighter,” Lewkowicz said. “You cannot take this away from him. But he needs to prove himself, and he has a chance to do that in this fight. It’s a very intriguing fight. I believe it’s 50-50.

“But the only reason that I believe they took the fight is because they underestimate Edwin De Los Santos. And if this is the case, maybe he will pay the price in his hometown.”

A capacity crowd in excess of 10,000 is expected to pack Scope again for the 26-year-old Davis’ second fight there in just about seven months.

What was already a lengthy layoff for De Los Santos, 24, was extended last fall when a blood clot in his left leg kept him out of the gym for several months. Win, lose or draw, Lewkowicz expects De Los Santos to have more opportunities to connect cleanly versus Davis than he did during his forgettable fight with Shakur Stevenson.

Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs), a southpaw from Newark, New Jersey, fought through an injury to his left hand and defeated De Los Santos by unanimous decision to win the then-vacant WBC lightweight title in November 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. De Los Santos failed to cut off the ring, allowed an elusive Stevenson to outbox him from mostly a comfortable distance and landed only 40 punches overall in 12 rounds, according to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics.

“With Shakur, you need two to tango,” Lewkowicz said. “The minute Shakur felt the punch he was running like a thief. That is the reality. Davis is a different fighter. To me, [Davis] is better. The difference between them is Davis comes to make a show and to make a fight, and Shakur, he wants to win, that’s all. He doesn’t care about the people or what they say.”

Davis and De Los Santos are still expected to headline a doubleheader ESPN will televise starting at 10 p.m. ET (3 a.m. BST). Abdullah Mason (18-0, 16 KOs), of Cleveland, Ohio, and the No. 2-ranked contender for the WBO title Davis lost on the scale, is set to meet Namibia’s Jeremia Nakathila (26-4, 21 KOs) in ESPN’s 10-round co-feature.