By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson may have unwittingly unleashed the dogs of war today when he declined to shake his opponent Shuichiro Yoshino’s hand when he offered it during their face-off at the final press conference for their WBC lightweight title eliminator for Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The big punching Yoshino (16-0, 12 KOs) had shown class was ultra-polite, showing respect to Haney throughout the press conference, but when his handshake offer was rejected, you could see the look on the Japanese fighter’s face. It changed from a friendliness look to a mean, cold stare, as if to say, ‘This is how it’s going to be, eh? Okay, I hope you’re ready for war on Saturday because I’m not taking prisoners.’
Yoshino has an enormous power advantage over the light-hitting Shakur, and it will be interesting to see how this fight plays out.
If Stevenson, 25, stands and fights Yoshino, he will take a lot of punishment because the Japanese fighter has heavy hands and is dangerous on the inside. He’s like a Kostya Tszyu-type puncher. You don’t want him punching you, so, strangely, Shakur chose to make him angry today.
Stevenson would have been better off Isaac Cruz, William Zepeda, or George Kambosos Jr than Yoshino because those guys can’t punch like him.
Fighting against a power-punching fighter like Yoshino in Shakur’s fight at 135 invites trouble. If Stevenson stands and slug with Yoshino, you could get chewed apart, but if he chooses to run as he did in his fights against Jeremiah Nakathilia and Joet Gonzalez, it will make him look bad.
Hopefully, Shakur doesn’t use his sleep-inducing pull-back style of his because it will make him look bad.
If you won’t shake your opponent’s hand and not show respect, you must at least want to back it up inside the ring by standing and fighting instead of running.
That’s why Shakur lost to Cuban Robeisy Ramirez in the 2016 Olympic final. Instead of standing and fighting Robeisy, Shakur ran the entire fight, making the Cuban chase him.
Not surprisingly, the judges didn’t go for that timid style, so they gave Robeisy the win. Each time Stevenson would stop running, Robeisy would light him up with combinations, forcing him to grab. If Stevenson fights like that against Yoshino, he’ll lose.
“I’m really pumped up for the fight. I’m really excited,” said Yoshino. “I’m excited to fight for the WBC title. This opportunity is really going to change my place in boxing.”
“My trainer and I have been studying Shakur. We have a game plan to implement on Saturday.”