Shakur Stevenson is now a free agent, an undefeated world champion who has held belts in three weight classes and is available to, presumably, the highest bidder.
He’s going to command (or at least demand) millions per fight, and not all of those bouts will have a draw like Gervonta Davis or Vasiliy Lomachenko standing in the opposite corner. He ended the first segement of his professional career with Top Rank by winning for the 22nd time in 22 fights easily outboxing overmatched Artem Harutyunyan and taking a unanimous decision before 8,412 occasionally grumpy fans at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Let’s be honest, though: Did you watch that and say, “Wow!” Did you see him fight and say, “I need to see this guy again.” There are guys in this sport who are appointment viewing. His good friend, pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford, is one of them. So, too, is the sensational super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue. Americans on the West Coast have to awaken at 3 or 4 in the morning to watch Inoue box, and they willingly do.
Would you awaken at 3 in the morning to see Stevenson fight?
Stevenson, who won by scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112, is unquestionably a talented fighter. And from his earliest days as a pro, after he won a silver medal at bantamweight in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I believed this guy would eventually succeed Floyd Mayweather as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
He’s a great talent, and he was never challenged Saturday against Harutyunyan, though that was no surprise. But it just wasn’t that much fun watching. He had a guy there for the taking and he didn’t take him. He allowed Harutyunyan to survive when Crawford would have left a similar opponent on the floor in the fetal position. Inoue would have pummeled a guy like Harutyunan unconscious.
Stevenson? Well, yeah, he won and he won big. Harutyunyan couldn’t lay a glove on him and didn’t cause him many problems. But we never saw Stevenson take a single risk. We didn’t see him try to put on a show in front of a hometown crowd that frequently booed him.
He took none of the blame for the unhappiness, suggesting Harutyunyan ran. But Stevenson is the guy the people came to see. He’s the guy so many, including myself, have said would be pound-for-pound No. 1 in the world. It was just a meh performance, though. Not bad. He didn’t get lucky.
But it was nothing to get excited about.
“It’s kind of hard to prove it if you don’t have a fighter who wants to fight back,” Stevenson said. “He was just trying to make sure he survived. He’s a good fighter. He’s tough. He’s strong. I would’ve wanted him to try a little harder, so that way it could be a more fun fight. I have to cut off the ring a bit more. He’d go one way and then go the other way, so I gotta go back in the gym and work on cutting off the ring.”
He is clearly risk-averse and doesn’t let his hands go unless absolutely necessary. He was much faster and more accurate than Harutyunyan and could have busted him up and stopped him by chopping up his face. But that would require throwing and Stevenson is nothing more than a counter puncher. He won’t lead and won’t throw unless there’s a clean shot available.
Is someone going to throw a bunch of money at him in the hope that he gets bouts with Davis and that ilk and also changes his style enough to become fan-friendly? Who knows.
Probably, he will. People are always tantalized by potential and Stevenson oozes it.
But performance, well, that’s another thing. And he wouldn’t even demand a fight against either Davis or Lomachenko. He kinda, sorta said he wanted to fight them, but he didn’t make it clear and unequivocal and get everyone buzzing.
“I want to fight the best fighters in boxing,” Stevenson said. “That’s how you’ll see the best version of me. Put me in the ring with somebody else who wants to fight back and compete. That’s when you’ll get the best out of me.”
He’s a talented fighter and if someone can bring the dog out of him, he’s still young (27) with little damage on his body.
It’s getting tiresome, though, watching the same thing repeatedy and not seeing him take advantage of all of those God-given gifts.
He got the victory on Saturday, but it’s not really what I’d call winning.
Mikey Williams/Top Rank
Shakur Stevenson won a unanimous decision Saturday in Newark, N.J., to raise his record to 22-0.