By Chris Williams: WBC super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez has inked his contract for his unification fight against WBO champion Shakur Stevenson, according to his manager Frank Espinoza.
Now it’s Shakur’s turn to put up or shut up. If Stevenson doesn’t sign the contract, he will get it big time from fans for being all talk.
Stevenson, 24, will need to perform a lot better than what we’ve seen from him lately because he’s been incredibly dull with his safety-first performances against Jamel Herring, Jeremia Nakathila, Toka Kahn Clary, and Felix Caraballo.
Chris Williams needed strong coffee to stay away while watching Stevenson in those fights because he was so boring.
Fans are getting tired of Shakur bragging about how great he is, yet he hasn’t fought anyone talented during his career, and safety-first pull-back fighting style is so awful to watch.
Stevenson’s running around to avoid getting hit is frustrating because he looks more like a fencer than a fighter. If Stevenson signs his part of the contractor the fight, it will be interesting to see how he reacts to the power shots from Valdez.
Will Shakur stand and fight, or will he get on his bike and run for 12 rounds as he did in his fight against the heavy-handed Nakathilia?
Oscar Valdez has signed the fight for Shakur Stevenson. Just waiting on Stevenson to do his part and sign off…… #boxing
— ESPINOZA BOXING 🥊 (@EspinozaBoxing) February 6, 2022
No one can say that Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) is ducking because he’s signed the contract for the fight. Fans have been giving Valdez, 31, grief for the past year, saying that he’s afraid of fighting Shakur, and now he has the chance to shut them up.
Now, the ball is in Shakur’s court to see if he’s ready to take sign the contract. Shakur (17-0, 9 KOs) still needs to sign his contract for the fight to make it a reality. The winner of the Valdez-Stevenson fight will be viewed as the #1 guy in the division.
Valdez is coming off a less than impressive 12 round unanimous decision win against Robson Conceicao last September in Tucson, Arizona. Conceicao made it challenging for Valdez with his aggressive attacking style, and he got the better of him during the championships rounds.
Luckily for Valdez, the judges saw it his way because many boxing fans felt that the Brazilian Conceicao had done enough to rate the victory.
Chris Williams had Valdez winning by a narrow 115-113 decision based on his substantial work in the first half of the fight, but he fell apart in the last four rounds.
