By Allan Fox: Shakur Stevenson was on the defense following his unimpressive sleep-induing 12 round decision over Jeremiah Nakathilia last Saturday night in their headliner on the Top Rank card at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Rather than admitting that he lacks the offensive skills and the courage to fight aggressively, Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) blamed his lackluster performance on his opponent Nakathilia (21-2, 17 KOs), saying that he was “awkward.”
Stevenson still fighting like an amateur
Based on that performance by Stevenson, he’ll lose to WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring and WBC champ Oscar Valdez. Those guys have too many offensive tools for Stevenson to beat them.
At the level that Stevenson is fighting right now, he’ll lose to Oscar Valdez, Leo Santa Cruz, Miguel Berchelt, Gervonta Davis, Shavkat Rakhimov, and Chris Colbert.
Top Rank needs to start thinking about what they’re going to do with Shakur once he starts losing to the elite fighters at 130 because it’s going to happen.
Stevenson doesn’t have the power, high work rate, or the bravery to beat the quality fighters at super featherweight. So if you’re Top Rank, you got to be coming up with a way to make it work with Stevenson by careful match-making.
Right now, Stevenson is still an amateur-level fighter, and he doesn’t have the pop or the pro-style for him to do well in the professional ranks.
Stevenson blaming Nakathila for his dull performance
“It was an awkward fighter. You had an awkward fighter throwing hard punches, and he knows how to grab and get away. He was a real awkward fighter. That’s all,” said Shakur in blaming Nakathila for his lack of talent.
“I tried to {get him out of there} a little bit, but I started getting hit with some solid shots. I ain’t really like it, but next time I’m going to work on moving my head a little bit more and step it up a little more.”
It’s sad to see Stevenson blaming his opponent for his own inadequacies.
Yeah, Stevenson beat Nakathila last Saturday night, but that guy is a C-level fighter, and he’s nowhere near the top guys like Oscar Valdez and Jamel Herring.
Shakur Stevenson using excuses to avoid the bitter truth
Fighters that make excuses the way Stevenson are using that mechanism as a tool to keep from dealing with the bitter truth, the fact that this game isn’t up to par.
Unless Stevenson owns his flaws and chooses to fix them, we’re going to see the same type of effort from him. Last night’s performance by Stevenson wasn’t the first boring, safety-first fight from him. His last three contests against Toka Kahn Clary, Felix Caraballo, and Joet Gonzalez were equally dull. This is a trend.
Stevenson needs to look in the mirror now and understand that he’s got to change if he wants to become an entertaining fighter.
More importantly, if Shakur wants to beat WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring, he’s going to need to be more aggressive.
“If I had the choice, I’d take Oscar Valdez, but if I had to beat up Jamel [Herring] to get to it, I’ll do that, too,” said Stevenson
Let’s face it; Stevenson isn’t going to beat up Valdez or Herring, no way. Yet, we heard Stevenson make the same bold prediction about how he would beat up and stop Nakathilia. Did he do that?
We saw Stevenson fighting scared after he got hit by a few solid right hands from Nakathilia in the fifth round. It had nothing at all to do with Nakathilia being awkward.
No, the reason why Shakur spent the last seven rounds running from his opponent is that he doesn’t like getting hit, and he lacks the power to stand and trade.
Moreover, Stevenson may be hiding a weak chin. Fighters that are reluctant to get hit, they’re often protecting a weak chin.