By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson could be making his debut at 135 in March or April against former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr.
Shakur has been complaining 24/7 about Pitbull Cruz and William Zepeda, having turned him down for a fight for over a month. Stevenson has been overdramatizing the fact that Pitbull and Zepeda won’t fight him.
It was fine the first time Shakur mentioned it, but won’t let it go. It’s almost like listening to an old person that can’t accept the bad decisions they made in their youth.
You would think that Stevenson would have moved on mentally by now, and not continuing to dwell on the past.
It’s not a good sign that Shakur still harping on the two big fish that got away. He’s got to be bigger than this and move on when there’s no interest.
“I should be back in March, probably even April. It may be Kambosos because Pitbull turned me down, and [William] Zepeda turned me down. I know from the rankings Kambosos is next, so I think it’ll be a Kambosos fight,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fight Hub TV.
“I think the fans and everybody allow them to duck. I think nobody really got on top of them the way that if I were to do something like that or Devin or anybody in the sport.
“I think Kambosos don’t get nothing to lose. I think he’ll be the first person to take the fight. He’s tough; he didn’t mind fighting Teo, he didn’t mind fighting Devin, so I don’t think he’ll back down from a challenge.”
If Stevenson wants to get fighters like Cruz and Zepeda to fight him, he’s got to become a superstar to where those guys will make big money fighting him.
The way to do that is for Shakur to become a more entertaining fighter and take chances on offense. Unfortunately, Stevenson has that ugly ‘pull-back’ style of fighting, which he’s constantly pulling back to avoid getting hit. That’s boring to watch.
The unbeaten Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) says he believes Kambosos Jr (20-2, 10 KOs) will agree to the fight because he has “nothing to lose” at this point after getting beaten in back-to-back fights against Devin Haney in 2022.
Shakur, 25, was visibly upset last Saturday night, talking about how his attempts at getting fights against the top-rated lightweight contenders Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz and William Zepeda were unsuccessful.
Both fighters showed no interest in facing the former two-division world champion Stevenson, leaving him in the position where he turned to his third option, Kambosos.
Stevenson’s defensive fighting style would make it difficult for Pitbull Cruz and Zepeda because those are offensive-oriented fighters who use a lot of pressure to win fights.
If Shakur can get the bout with Kambosos, it’s still an excellent fight, as the former three-belt champion is famous in his native Australia and the United States.