Shakur Stevenson says he feels the 135 lb division is “overrated” because the top guys haven’t “fought nobody.”
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) moved up from 130 recently to the lightweight division with an idealistic mindset, believing that there would be big fights available to him.
Instead, Stevenson’s attempts to get important fights have been ignored and finds himself on the sidelines without any immediate prospects for a mega-fight.
Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez have blown town, moving up to the 140-lb division, and Devin Haney is expected to follow them in 2023.
Unless Shakur moves up to the light welterweight division too, he could find himself languishing at 135 with no one to fight.
“I think 135 is an overrated division. I think that all these dudes have been at the same weight all this time, and nobody really fought nobody,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype, about the top guys in the lightweight division haven’t fought anybody.
The good news is Shakur has the size to compete at 140, so he could move up to that division if nothing is happening for him at 135.
Also, Stevenson’s fighting style scares off other fighters and their promoters because he’s not a big enough star for them to feel that it’s worthwhile to face him. If they don’t think they can beat Stevenson, they’re not going to fight him because it’s not worth it. After all, the money won’t be huge.
“The only person that fought people that I can give credit for is Teofimo Lopez when he fought Lomachenko when Lomachenko was still on top and Devin when he fought Kambosos,” said Shakur.
“Them dudes being at the same late, I feel everybody should have been fighting each other. We don’t know how good they are against someone like themselves.
“I can’t look at it like there are some killers in the division. It’s an overrated division. At least 147, besides Errol and Terence, them dudes was getting in the ring and fighting each other.
“I just feel like it’s an overrated division. They give these dudes a lot of credit, and I don’t feel like they’ve been in the big, big fights yet. I don’t look at it the same way everybody else looks at it.
“I don’t really care what he has to say,” said Stevenson about Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.