By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson came out guns blazing on Thursday night in reacting to Teofimo Lopez telling the media that Vasily Lomachenko would beat Shakur along with Devin Haney and Gervonta’ Tank’ Davis.
Teofimo didn’t mean to downgrade newly crowned WBO super featherweight champion Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs) by saying the more experienced and accomplished two-time Olympic gold medalist and former three-division world champion Lomachenko would beat him.
Teo believes that the fledgling Shakur still has a LONG way to go before he’s capable of hanging with a talent like Lomachenko, and he’s still fighting in a manner that wouldn’t result in a victory against the Ukrainian.
Shakur denies Lomachenko beats him
“Boy, you or Loma can’t fw me @TeofimoLopez. Don’t put me in no convo you know ain’t nun Fraud about me mf,” said Shakur Stevenson on Twitter in racing to Teofimo saying Lomachenko beats him.
Specifically, Teofimo mentioned that Stevenson, 24, is still using the spoiling amateurish pull-back style of fighting, and he’s not showing the willingness to stay in the pocket and fight. Teofimo states that even Floyd Mayweather Jr stayed in the pocket, both early and late in his career, to mix it up with his opponents, and that’s what made Mayweather great.
When Mayweather was the same age as Stevenson twenty years ago, he stayed in the pocket to defeat Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, and Jose Luis Castillo.
Mayweather wasn’t using the pull-back style nonstop the way we’ve seen with Shakur Stevenson his entire pro career. Floyd was willing to put his chin on the line to entertain the boxing public, which we haven’t seen from Shakur with his safety-first pull-back style of fighting.
For Shakur to have any chance against a talent like Lomachenko, he would need to stay in the pocket and fight him rather than hitting and immediately pulling back.
That ugly hit & run spoiling style wouldn’t work for Stevenson against Lomachenko, and it might result in him getting knocked out.
That’s more of an amateur style that Shakur is using, and Lomachenko is well-versed in picking that method of fighting apart. Loma has seen that style a million times in the amateurs, and it would be too easy for him to defeat.
Teofimo says Lomachenko beats Shakur
“Lomachenko would beat Shakur,” said Teofimo on Thursday. “You got to stick more there rather than [Stevenson using his pull-back style],” said Teofimo in pointing out Shakur’s bad habit of hitting and immediately pulling back to avoid getting hit back.
“You can’t [fight like that]. Pretty Boy even did it [stood and fought]. Pretty Boy had to go in and dig in sometimes, and sometimes he got buckled, but he still fought,” said Teofimo.
Shakur shouldn’t take what Teofimo is saying about him as an insult. If Stevenson is willing to look at himself in the mirror, he’ll realize that Teofimo is trying to help him.
Teo is saying what the boxing public is about his boring pull-back style of fighting and his total unwillingness to stay in the pocket the way he needs to become a star.
At this point, it’s only evident that Lomachenko would pick Stevenson apart and ruin him, which is likely the sole reason Top Rank isn’t trying to put them in with each other.
If they thought Shakur could beat Lomachenko, they likely would be pushing for that fight next rather than talking about wanting to match the recently knocked out Miquel Berchelt against Stevenson.
It’s unlikely that Shakur will ever change the way he fights because he doesn’t have the willingness to stay in the pocket and risk getting hit hard by his opponents.
I mean, Stevenson stayed in the pocket a lot of the time in his last fight against 35-year-old Jamel Herring, but that guy isn’t a puncher, and he looks closer to 40 than he does his chronological age.
We saw Shakur’s reaction when he did fight a guy with power last June when he fought timidly against Jeremia Nakathilia and was booed by the fans during and after the fight.
