Keyshawn Davis doesn’t expect Edwin De Los Santos’ sharpness to be impacted all that much by his opponent’s long layoff.

The Dominican southpaw will fight for the first time in 18 months when he challenges the undefeated Davis for the WBO lightweight title Saturday night at Scope Arena in Davis’ hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. De Los Santos, 24, hasn’t boxed since he lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Shakur Stevenson for an unclaimed WBC lightweight championship in November 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Davis believes De Los Santos’ youth will help him find his rhythm rather quickly once the bell rings to start a main event ESPN will televise.

“He’s not an old fighter,” Davis told The Ring. “He’s young. De Los Santos is very young. What I do expect is probably the first couple rounds he’ll be slow, get his feet under him. The arena’s gonna be packed. It’s gonna be a lotta people, so it’s gonna be loud in there.

“It’s gonna be a different environment from what his last fight was. It’s gonna be a totally different environment. So, maybe like the first two rounds he probably gonna have to wait till he gets settled in and get back in that groove. But in terms of him being off and being slower, I don’t think that at all.”

That said, Davis’ activity obviously is an advantage entering his first defense of a WBO belt he won when he knocked out Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk (19-1, 9 KOs) in the fourth round Feb. 14 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Davis, 27, has fought four times since De Los Santos’ last bout. The 2021 Olympic silver medalist has won each of those four fights convincingly and ascended to a position in which he can draw capacity crowds for title defenses in his native Norfolk.

The Ring ranks Davis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) at No. 2 on its list of top 10 lightweight contenders for a title that is vacant, behind only WBA champ Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KOs, 1 NC). De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs), of Allentown, Pennsylvania, is not ranked by The Ring due to his inactivity.

De Los Santos’ hiatus from boxing was extended last September because he suffered a blood clot in his left leg. Recovering from that condition caused him to remain out of the gym until January.

The Santo Domingo native is motivated to make up for lost time versus Davis, who is a 10-1 favorite to retain his title, according to DraftKings.

Davis-De Los Santos will headline a two-bout broadcast scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET (3 a.m. GMT). Another undefeated lightweight, Cleveland’s Abdullah Mason (18-0, 16 KOs), is set to meet Namibian veteran Jeremia Nakathila (26-4, 21 KOs) in the 10-round opener of the telecast.

ESPN+ will begin its Davis-De Los Santos undercard coverage at 5:15 p.m. ET (10:15 p.m. BST).