Shakur Stevenson says he chose not to shake Shuichiro Yoshino’s hand during today’s final press conference because he has no interest in being friendly with his Japanese opponent before their WBC lightweight title eliminator on Saturday night.
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) states that after their fight, he can be friends with #4 WBC Yoshino (16-0, 12 KOs), but not before. What Shakur wants to do on Saturday night is “beat him up” when the two fight in the twelve-round main event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Stevenson vs. Yoshino event will be shown live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+ at 10:00 p.m. ET.
The winner of the Stevenson-Yoshino fight will be the WBC mandatory for undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney. Whether they’ll get a shot at fighting Haney is unknown.
Haney plans on fighting the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia winner if he gets past Vasily Lomachenko on May 20th.
In undercard fights:
- Jared Anderson vs. Georg Arias
- Keyshawn Davis vs. Anthony Yigit
“I think the competitive nature took over at that point. I’m a respectful dude, and I don’t have any disrespect for him, but I just want to beat him up,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media about why he chose not to shake Shuichiro Yoshino’s hand when the Japanese fighter attempted this goodwill gesture during today’s final press conference.
“I just want to beat him up. I’m not trying to be friendly with him. That’s not my friend. After I beat him up, we can be friends,” Shakur continued about why he chose not to shake Yoshino’s hand.
“I think the 135-lb division. It started heating up, and everyone started fighting each other now. I got to make sure I’m on top of my game because there are a lot of great fighters in the division, even though I thought the division was overrated because they wasn’t fighting each other,” said Stevenson on why he’s found a new focus and love for boxing.
“Now that they’re fighting each other, there’s a lot of great fighters, and I got to be on top of my A-game. No, I’m a little 135. I’m not moving up anytime soon. I was just talking and speaking for the fighters. We all feel the same way right now. As I said, I can’t wait to eat,” said Stevenson.
