By Allan Fox: Henry Garcia says Shakur Stevenson needs to earn his spot at lightweight like his son Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis have.
Henry wasn’t pleased with Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) becoming WBC 135-lb mandatory to champion Devin Haney last Saturday night with his victory over Shuichiro Yoshino in a title eliminator.
From Henry’s viewpoint, Shakur needs to”fight somebody that’s known” for him to become mandatory. However, that’s not how the WBC sees it, as they had the previously unbeaten Yoshino (16-1, 12 KOs) ranked #4, so it didn’t matter that he wasn’t a household name with the casual boxing fans.
That fight was the former two-division world champion Stevenson’s debut at lightweight, and he’s now in a position to force a title shot against Haney.
Interestingly, Henry says his son Ryan Garcia has “earned” his shot at fighting for a world title, but Shakur hasn’t. You can argue that Ryan has done little to earn a title shot.
Ryan’s best wins as a pro:
- Romero Duno
- Luke Campbell
- Javier Fortuna
- Emmanuel Tagoe
- Francisco Fonseca
Some would say that Ryan’s resume is weak, as he’s not fought any of the quality lightweights in the division. He hasn’t even fought Isaac Cruz, who you can argue is a gatekeeper-level 135-pounder.
Campbell never did anything at lightweight other than get beaten up by Vasily Lomachenko. Fortuna had been recently beaten by Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz when Ryan fought him, so that fight didn’t prove anything for him.
Stevenson’s best wins:
- Oscar Valdez
- Jamel Herring
- Robson Conceicao
- Joet Gonzalez
- Jeremiah Nakathilia
- Shuichiro Yoshino
Shakur Stevenson must earn his spot
“I’ve seen clips of it, but you’ve got to fight somebody that’s known. Come on, let’s be real here,” said Henry Garcia to Fighthype about Shakur Stevenson’s fight last Saturday night against Shuichiro Yoshino.
“You’re going to put him against a guy, Yoko Ono or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Henry when told that Ono was married to one of the Beatles. “Well, somebody close to that name. I mean, you got to fight somebody real, a live dog.
“You have to fight somebody that’s legal. And then for them to be saying that he has mandatory over Haney and Loma? Come on; you’ve been grooming him since the amateur days. Enough is enough. Fight somebody that’s tough. Fight somebody where you’ve earned your spot.
“Tank has earned his spot. Ryan has earned his spot, right? I mean, come on. They deserve stuff like that. You can’t say that you just fought this Yoko dude, and all of a sudden, here you are as [WBC] mandatory.
“That’s why Ryan said, ‘Belts don’t matter.’ Stuff like that, it’s wrong. Here’s a thing I want to clear up. If you have all the belts, the only thing I don’t like about that is unless you earned it is that a guy had all the belts, and you fought just one lightweight to gather up all those belts.
“I feel that I’ll give a person more respect if they beat the Ryan Garcia, the Tank Davis, the Loma and the Haney, and even [Isaac] Cruz. If he fought all those guys and you beat them all, then I’m going to call you the king of the lightweight.
“[Devin] Haney has the edge because of his age. Age factor could play a role in this one, you know?” said Henry when asked about his thoughts on next month’s fight between undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney vs. Vasily Lomachenko on May 2oth.
“Loma wasn’t like this back then, you know? So I’m going to have to favor Haney in this one,” said Garcia.
