WBC 135-lb champion Shakur Stevenson wants to become the king of the lightweight division, targeting Gervonta Davis and whoever emerges as the IBF, & WBO champion.
Fresh off his win over Edwin De Los Santos on November 16th, Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) wants to dethrone WBA ‘regular’ champion Tank Davis, and he’s not happy to learn that his trainer Calvin Ford isn’t interested in the fight happening.
It might take a fight or two by Shakur to change Ford’s mind because for the time being, he’s likely disinterested due to Stevenson’s last performance against De Los Santos.
That was one that Shakur fought at less than 100%, fighting with an injured shoulder & hand, and not feeling well.
Top Rank, the promoters for Shakur, will need to throw a lot of money at some of the well-known contenders to give the Newark, New Jersy native an opportunity to show that he can fight aggressively and not move nonstop like he’d done against De Los Santos and many of his other 20 opponents in the professional ranks.
“He’s a good fighter, puts a lot of pressure, but he can’t beat me,” said Shakur Stevenson to K.O. Artist Sports, talking about unbeaten lightweight contender William Zepeda. “Ain’t s*** going on. He’s just a weirdo,” said Shakur about Teofimo Lopez, who recently mentioned that Stevenson was boring.
Out of all the well known contenders in the 135-lb division. William Zepeda is arguably the easiest fight that Top Rank could arrange for Shakur because Golden Boy wants that fight. Zepeda has the kind of pressure style that would force Shakur to run even more than he did in his fights with De Los Santos, Jeremiah Nakathilia, Joet Gonzalez, and Robeisy Ramirez.
Shakur pleased with his performance against De Los Santos
“I did. I sized him up, but before that, we had a conversation in DMs, and I told him that we were going to fight each other. I thought it was cool. I didn’t know it was an issue me sizing him up. I don’t get the issue,” said Shakur about Teofimo.
“Right now, I can’t see it happening. He’s [Teofimo] at 140, and I’m at 135, but it can happen in the future. He’s not really that big. I’m bigger than him.”
Teofimo Lopez won’t fight Shakur, so that’s a waste of time for him to be talking about him. Teo is a fighter who has done very little since his victory over an injured, older, and much smaller Vasily Lomachenko in 2020.
“I realize I’m a bad mother f***,” said Shakur when asked about him re-watching his November 16th fight against Edwin De Los Santos, which was loudly booed and highly criticized due to his evasive style of fighting and unwillingness to engage.”
While Shakur might be happy with his performance against De Los Santos, promoters, fighters, and fans were not, and he could find it very, very difficult to get the fights that he wanted moving forward.
Shakur checks every box as being the type of fighter that is avoided:
- Runner
- Counter-puncher
- Southpaw
- Defensive
- Not a PPV draw
- Doesn’t sell tickets
“I had a lot going on in that fight, but I got the job done,” said Shakur. “We came out victorious. I had a good fighter in front of me. Me beating a good fighter on a night like that is a testament to how great I truly am.
“We’ll see. I’m the champion now. I want the belts,” said Shakur when asked who he wants to fight next now that he’s the WBC lightweight champion after his contested win over De Los Santos.
“My goal is to go grab every belt one by one, and become undisputed the hard way. I want to do something that [hasn’t been done before]. Has that been done before?
“I want to be able to grab every belt one by one and become undisputed. He said he ain’t taking that s***. He don’t want that s***, which I respect because why the f*** would I want to be an email champion,” said Shakur about WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta Davis says he doesn’t want to be elevated to full champion by email, now that Devin Haney is vacating all his remaining 135-lb belts.
“You can tell that [Tank Davis’ trainer] Calvin [Ford] don’t want no wreck. It seems like Calvin doesn’t want the fight, but it seems like [coach] Kenny [Ellis] wants the fight,” said Shakur about Gervonta’s trainer Calvin Ford not interested in him fighting Stevenson. “I don’t know who’s tougher, Calvin or Kenny,” said Shakur.
