Shakur Stevenson showed off his powerful body punching ability on Tuesday night in dropping Felix Caraballo (13-2-2, 9 KOs) twice with hard shots en route to scoring a 6th round knockout on ESPN at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams/ Top Rank)
After the first round, it was abundantly clear that Caraballo was completely over-matched in this fight. He was a big step down in Stevenson’s last opponent Joet Gonzalez, and even that guy wasn’t an A-level fighter.
You can’t blame Top Rank for putting Caraballo in with Stevenson because this is probably the best they could get during the pandemic. It wasn’t a great fight in terms of competitiveness.
Caraballo was hit with a perfectly placed body shot from Stevenson (14-0, 8 KOs) in the sixth. The blast from Stevenson, 22, took the air out of Caraballo and put him on the canvas. Caraballo was too hurt for him to get back to his feet to continue.
The writing was on the wall after the fifth, as Stevenson was hitting him with so many shots that the fight should have been stopped. Caraballo’s corner left him out there, hoping he would land a homerun punch, but it was no use.
Earlier in the fight, Stevenson knocked Caraballo down with a body shot. Caraballo did a good acting job in giving the impression that it was a slip, but it was clearly a knockdown from a hard body shot from Shakur.
After Caraballo got back to his feet, Stevenson unloaded on him, causing him to cover up to make it out of the round.
Caraballo looked troubled in round two with Stevenson hitting him with hard shots that him looking flustered. At this point in the fight, Caraballo wasn’t handling the power shots that Stevenson was hitting him with. Caraballo fought like he was going to fall apart at any minute if Stevenson had continued hitting him with his powerful shots.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Stevenson was in another league than Caraballo. It was so obvious. Caraballo fought as well as he could. He was putting everything he had in shots, but they were mostly missing due to Shakur’s great defense. Each time Caraballo would miss, Stevenson would nail him with a hard counter that would get his attention.
If Stevenson had a little more punching power, he would have made easy work with Caraballo because he was hitting him at will. If this had been someone like Miguel Berchelt or Oscar Valdez inside the ring tonight with Caraballo, the fight would have ended early. The same with lightweights Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia, and Gervonta Davis. They all punch a lot harder than Stevenson, and they would have had Caraballo out of there early.
Robeisy Ramirez stops Yeuri Andujar
In the performance of the night, two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez (3-1, 3 KOs) defeated Yeuri Andujar (5-4, 3 KOs) by a first-round knockout in featherweight action. The contest was stopped 54 seconds into round one.
The talented 26-year-old Cuban Robeisy Ramirez put Andujar down twice with left hands to the head. Those shots were thrown with so much power that Andujar never stood a chance. 30 seconds into the round, Ramirez put Andujar down with a left uppercut. He’d already hurt Andujar with a left to the head before that.
“It was an honor to be the first fight back, and I am proud of the performance I gave tonight,” Robeisy said after the match. “My pro debut is long behind me, and I am progressing with every fight. I hope to return shortly.”
“Shakur is a world champion, and that’s a fight I want down the line, but I have to continue my winning ways and prove that I’m worthy of that opportunity as a pro.”
Robeisy beat Shakur in the 2016 Olympics in the finals. Stevenson would like to avenge that loss, but he’s going to have to wait a while. Top Rank isn’t going to put these two in with each other just yet. They want to let them develop, and perhaps have them meet with both guys are world champions.
The way that Ramirez looked tonight, Stevenson would have been in a world of hurt if he’d shared with him. The Cuban is a much better puncher than Stevenson, and his accuracy is out of this world good.
Stevenson might make Ramirez miss with some of his shots, but he’s going to catch him eventually with one of his left hands. When that happens, it would be interesting to see if Stevenson would still be standing.
Ramirez stole the show tonight with his win over Andujar. Had Ramirez been in there with Caraballo, I have no doubts he would have knocked him out in the first round.