By Allan Fox: Shakur Stevenson weighed in at 134.4 lbs in his first fight at lightweight for his twelve-round WBC title eliminator against Shuichiro Yoshino this Saturday night on April 8th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. #4 Yoshino (16-0, 12 KOs) weighed in at the lightweight limit of 135 lbs.
The two had a long face-off, with Yoshino turning away first, seeming to make Shakur happy, leaving him smirking as if he’d won a psychological victory over his Japanese opponent.
On Thursday at the final press conference, Haney had declined to shake Yoshino’s hand when he offered it after their face-off.
The Stevenson-Yoshino event will be shown at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPN Deports, and ESPN+.
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) is the favorite to win this fight, and some believe he’ll make easy work of Yoshino. The winner of the fight will be the mandatory challenger to WBC champion Devin Haney, who also holds the IBF, WBA & WBO lightweight belts.
“I don’t know. Shakur has never had a fight at lightweight before. He’s a tremendous fighter,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe to Fight Hub TV about his belief that Shakur Stevenson isn’t in the same class as fighters like Gervonta Davis.
“You guys are anointing him [Shakur]. I’ve never even seen him fight at lightweight. I know he can fight his a** off. I’ve never seen him in a lightweight fight. The eye test, but I’m just telling you that you can’t skip the step.
“It’s easy to say this and easy to say that. If all these guys are around, the fans have got to be a little patient because they going to fight. Somehow the combinations. It’s inevitable because if you’re not only saying that you’re the best and you’re proving that you’re the best. We already know that Tank is the best.
“They’ve got to figure all that stuff out because here it is that you’ve got a lightweight fight, and you guys, ‘Oh, that’s a big fight.’ What’s considered big? These fighters are fighting for bragging rights. They’re fighting for this [money] and legacy, too, but mostly this [money]. That’s what’s going to feed their families.
“You look at Ryan Garcia. He’s making more money than both of those guys [Shakur and Yoshino] combined in fighting Tank. Combined. These guys got to get in line because Tank can’t fight them all, and Ryan Garcia is bigger than them all,” said Ellerbe.
