Shakur Stevenson believes that he’s going to defeat WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring in their fight next month on October 23rd on ESPN at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Stevenson (16-0, 18 KOs) is predicting a victory for himself over the 35-year-old Herring to take his career to superstar status.
The unbeaten 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur, 24, isn’t worried about the critics who slammed him after his safety-first performance in defeating Jeremiah Nakathilia last June in a WBO 130-lb title eliminator bout.
Shakur wants to become a superstar, but he may need to be content with being viewed as a talented fighter instead. In other words, Stevenson is the 130-lb division’s version of Devin Haney.
Stevenson boxes well, but he put on exciting drama-filled performances, and he likely never will. What’s interesting is Stevenson’s promoter Bob Arum isn’t dumping on him the way he’d done with Guillermo Rigondeaux in the past for putting on boring fights.
Stevenson compares himself to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and other elite boxing superstars from the past in pointing out that he had an off night.
That wasn’t the first time that Stevenson had performed poorly in winning a fight. He didn’t put on an exciting show against Joet Gonzalez, Toka Kahn Clary, and Christopher Diaz.
Stevenson doesn’t care about the critics
“I don’t care what they say,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype on the flak he received after his last fight against Jeremiah Nakathilia. “Some nights you’re going to have nice wins.
“I’m going to put on a superstar performance against Jamel. I’m not tripping about it because if you look at the greats. Some nights, they have great nights, and other nights, they have mediocre nights.
“I’m just going to go in there and do what I go to do. I’m not thinking about the last fight. I’m undefeated and two-time coming up, so I ain’t even tripping,” said Stevenson.
While Stevenson may not care that his fights aren’t thrilling the boxing public, he should care because he’s not going to become a superstar if he fails to create drama in his bouts.
Mayweather became famous early on because he had blazing fast hand speed, and he was scoring a lot of knockouts when he was campaigning at super featherweight.
The knockouts for Mayweather dried up when he moved up to 147, but he still had his hand speed and he was excellent at getting boxing fans interested in his fights with his arrogant manner
Some would say that Mayweather’s attitude made many fans tune in just to see if he would lose. Stevenson doesn’t possess Mayweather’s hand speed, and he’s not knocking guys out because he lacks power.
He’s more of a pure boxer, who scores his knockouts by throwing a lot of shots.
Shakur on sparring with Yordenis Ugas
“I sparred with [Yordenis] Ugas last year,” said Stevenson. “We had a great sparring session. I don’t know,” Shakur said when asked what was Ugas’ power like.
“I don’t know about his power. I didn’t feel no power, but he’s a solid boxer. Just to say that I’ve been in the ring with a 147-pounder and held my own, and he didn’t get off on me at all.
“Terence Crawford and I just sparred with Regis [Prograis] last week. I sparred all these bigger dudes.
“I don’t speak on sparring. I’m sparring all these bigger dudes, and I fight at 130.
“They’re bigger than me. I can’t say got off on me and beat me up. Just being in the ring with these types of dudes elevates my game a lot,” said Shakur.
It’s interesting that Stevenson says he didn’t feel the power from Ugas because he can punch when he’s healthy.
Which one is it 18- 0 – 16 or 16 -0 – 18 ?