Shakur Stevenson has the titles and the zero in the loss column but superstardom has yet to discover him

The expectations for Shakur Stevenson coming out of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were sky high. Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself made the trek to South America to see him in person and make a pitch for Mayweather Promotions.

Stevenson, a silver medalist at bantamweight, was one of the most heavily hyped Americans to enter the pro game following an Olympic run since Andre Ward won the gold medal in 1996. Stevenson signed with Top Rank, which had hoped he'd be the latest in a long line of superstars that the company promoted, following Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather.

Seven years and three months later, Stevenson's run with Top Rank is about to come to an end. He'll be a free agent Sunday following the defense of his WBC lightweight title on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on ESPN against Artem Harutyunyan.

Stevenson is 21-0 with 10 knockouts. He's ranked No. 7 pound-for-pound by KevinIole.com, and he's eighth by ESPN. Ring Magazine doesn't rate him in its pound-for-pound Top 10 and has him fourth at lightweight behind Gervonta Davis, Vasiliy Lomachenko and William Zepeda.

He's won titles in three weight classes and was the unified champion at 130 pounds, but he hasn't gotten the acclaim that many of his peers have received. And as he's on the verge of free agency, he's getting taunted by rival promoters.

Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions promotes Zepeda, who fights Giovanni Cabrera in Ontario, Calif., on DAZN on Saturday. If De La Hoya thought he had a chance to sign Stevenson to Golden Boy, he'd be praising him to the heavens and blasting Top Rank's Bob Arum for not promoting him effectively.

Instead, though, he jabbed at him.

Stevenson, though, just shrugs the criticism off.

"It just comes with the territory of being great," Stevenson said. "I think all of the greats have had a lot of hate and I think like with me, people put an unfair amount of criticism on me because of how good I truly am. They know that I'm on that level but with that being the case, I think it comes with a lot of different opinions, and criticism."

Davis, Stevenson's primary rival at this point, was asked after his eighth-round knockout of Frank Martin in their WBA lightweight title fight on June 15 in Las Vegas about facing Stevenson next.

He didn't out and out blast Stevenson but the implication was clear.

"You know how it would go," Davis said. "Everybody in this room knows how it would go. But with that said, it might be good for the sport, if we fight now or later."

Stephen "Breadman" Edwards is a notable trainer who has carefully watched Stevenson's career. He noted that a lot of the criticism hurled Stevenson's way is coming because of his less-than-stellar performance when he won the vacant WBC title by defeating Edwin De Los Santos over 12 rounds on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas.

De Los Santos dutifully moved forward, but Stevenson used his legs and didn't turn it into an exciting fight.

Edwards, though, wasn't ready to bury Stevenson as a result of it.

"Shakur is a super talented fighter, and despite the criticism, I think he's going to be very hard to beat," Edwards said. "His last performance probably was not his best, but I think it's redeemable. I think he can redeem himself from that performance. But no doubt, he's going to be really hard to beat and I think it's clear Gervonta is going to be his biggest rival for supremacy at 135 pounds."

Stevenson is close with Terence Crawford, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Crawford has consistently said that he thinks Stevenson will one day be No. 1 in those rankings.

He's shown flashes of that kind of talent but hasn't put it on display regularly, though Edwards cautioned against picking his game apart too much.

"Look at what the kid has done," Edwards said. "He's won titles in three divisions. He unified at 130. He's undefeated. He's an Olympic medalist. I don't think you say a guy who has done that is a disappointment. But let's be honest: He hasn't turned into a superstar. He's one of the more under-the-radar guys in terms of those who won Olympic medals and then went on in the pros to do big things. He's not as celebrated as Tank [Davis], Teofimo [Lopez], Naoya Inoue and some other guys who in that same age bracket.

"Tank understands the pay-per-view modules and that boxing is entertainment but because of Shakur's steven, when he's facing a puncher, he's not as worried about being entertaining He's trying to win. Now, you should never put anything in front of winning, but performance always matters and I think that's where some of the criticism comes in on him."