Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) and Felix Caraballo (13-1-2, 9 KOs) weighed in at 130-lbs for their super featherweight non-title match-up on Thursday on June 9. Caraballo in 1/2 pound over the limit at 130.5 lbs during the first weigh-in attempt, and then had to go back take the extra weight off. It was no problem for him to make the weight when he reweighed.
Stevenson’s physique looked kind of fleshy and not cut up the way fighters usually are at 130. Perhaps the extra four pounds that had to spare in going from 126 to 130 resulted in a few extra pounds of fat instead of muscle.
Stevenson-Caraballo will be fighting on ESPN at 7 pm Eastern Time this Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be a fight held without a crowd.
Stevenson, 22, who holds the WBO 126-lb belt, is coming up in weight to fight Caraballo in a 10 round fight with nothing at stake. The only thing that will be at stake for this fight will be Stevenson’s credibility.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur is fighting a guy that isn’t ranked in the top 15 at 130, and if he loses or looks terrible, it’s going to be a nightmare for him and his promoters at Top Rank. They picked Caraballo, and this supposed to be a safe fight for Stevenson, but you never know, though.
Stevenson won the World Boxing Organization featherweight title in beating Joet Gonzalez last October by a 12 round unanimous decision. Before the pandemic reared its ugly head, Stevenson had planned on defending his WBO strap against #7 WBO Miguel Marriaga on March 14 in New York.
Unfortunately for Stevenson, the contest was canceled, leaving him in limbo like the rest of the boxers in the sport. Rather than reschedule, Stevenson is facing the non-ranked Caraballo. This fight likely has to do with the money.
Had Stevenson defended his WBO 126-lb belt against a top 15 contender, they would have wanted a nice payday. With Stevenson now fighting a non-title fight against a no-name, that makes things easier on the money side.
While some boxing fans view Shakur as a future star, other fans see him as lacking the speed and power to rise far in the game. Stevenson’s promoter Bob Arum has been comparing him to Floyd Mayweather Jr., and some of the ESPN commentators are high on him as well.
Stevenson doesn’t fight like Mayweather, though, and he’s not fast like him. He’s a good fighter, but just not like Mayweather or even close for that matter. It’s hard to compare Stevenson to anyone because he’s different. We’ll see how good Stevenson is when he starts fighting talented opposition. Right now, Stevenson’s management is putting him in with a lot of beatable guys with limited talent.
The co-feature bout has been changed after female boxer Mikaela Mayer tested positive for COVID-19 and had to pull out of the card. Heavyweight Jared Anderson (3-0, 3 KOs) will now be fighting in the co-feature spot against journeyman Johnny Langston (8-2, 3 KOs).
That fight will likely end in the first round, like the 20-year-old Anderson’s three previous opponents. Top Rank needs to start matching Anderson against guys with a little more than what he’s been facing.
It’s a bad sign that Anderson keeps knocking out the guys they feed him in the first round. What they don’t need is for Anderson to have 20 first-round knockouts on his record before he faces his first opponent with halfway decent talent.
Undercard weights:
Jared Anderson 236.5 lbs vs. Johnnie Langston 218.3 lbs
Guido Vianello 239.25 lbs vs. Don Haynesworth 294.5 lbs
(Heavyweight — 6 Rounds)
Quatavious Cash 160.5 lbs vs. Calvin Metcalf 158.3 lbs
(Middleweight — 6 Rounds)
Robeisy Ramirez 126 lbs vs. Yeuri Andujar 125.5 lbs
(Featherweight — 6 Rounds)