By Jim Calfa: Shakur Stevenson was upset watching Erickson ‘The Hammer’ Lubin absorb brutal punishment en route to losing to Sebastian ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora by a ninth-round stoppage in their battle for the interim WBC junior middleweight title last Saturday night at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Stevenson, a defensively-focused fighter, said he didn’t like watching Erickson take so many shots from the lanky Fundora, who was throwing nonstop punches the entire fight.
Unfortunately, Lubin lacked the height, reach, stamina, and punch output to live with Fundora once the contest reached the sixth round.
Even if Lubin had chosen to put his energy into defending against Fundora, too many punches were thrown at him to get out of the way of all of them.
Lubin’s corner pulled the 26-year-old out of the fight following a one-sided ninth in which he’d been hammered by the tall 6’6″ Fundora the entire round.
The #1 ranked World Boxing Council contender at 154, Lubin, had his face wholly reconfigured from the punches he had taken from Fundora.
“I don’t like watching it. I’m a boxer, so I like to hit and not get hit,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fight Hub TV, reacting to watching Erickson Lubin getting stopped by Sebastian Fundora last Saturday night.
“I don’t like to see my brothers or somebody else go through punishment. It looked like he was going through punishment tonight,” continued Stevenson about ‘The Hammer’ Erickson.
Fundora a cheat code. He the type of character you make on fight night and you boots the sliders up and his height and a smaller weight class.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) April 10, 2022
Crawford has got it wrong about Fundora. This guy is naturally lean and walks around near the 154-lb weight.
Unlike many fighters in the sport, Fundora isn’t a ‘weight bully,’ gaming the system by draining down to compete against smaller fighters. Fundora beat Lubin with his work rate and toughness, not because of his size.
“I felt like he [Lubin] stood there and wanted to fight. It’s hard to get away from somebody that tall. He can hit you from all the way back there. I mean, I just feel like he should have kept his defense a little tighter.”
It wouldn’t have been enough for Lubin to beat Fundora by choosing to keep his “defense a little tighter,” said Shakur would have liked to do so.
Fundora was raining shots down on Lubin, and it was like he was being rained on. With that many shots being thrown, Lubin had no choice but to get hit.
You can argue that the 6’6″ Fundora’s punch output was the main reason Lubin took so much punishment, not his height & reach.
Fundora gave up his height by staying in the medium range the entire fight, meaning his size wasn’t the leading factor for his victory. His volume punching ultimately proved to be too much for Erickson last Saturday night.
“His [Lubin] coach looked at me at the last round,” said Shakur. “He was going to stop it that round. They probably didn’t stop it sooner because Erickson has got a lot of heart, and he showed that when he hurt him [Fundora] and dropped him [in the seventh]. Definitely, I think his corner did a good job,” said Stevenson.
Lubin did an excellent job of coming back in the seventh round to hurt Sebastian, dropping him hard. However, Fundora immediately came back in the eighth round and was lighting Erickson up with nonstop shots to the head that did a number on his face.
Stevenson’s brand of fighting, using the pull-back style, wouldn’t have worked against a fighter that throws nonstop shots like Fundora.
The style that Shakur employs is more effective against fighters with low work rates, and it wouldn’t work if he were facing someone that threw over 1000 punches per 12-round fight.
