By Dan Ambrose: Shakur Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) sounding sick ahead of his fight this Saturday night against the heavy-handed #4 WBC lightweight contender Shuichiro Yoshino (16-0, 12 KOs) for their twelve-round main event clash at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
During an interview today, Shakur sounded like he’s got a bad case of the sniffles, and he was clearly having breathing problems through his nose. Against a big puncher like Yoshino, it could be a major problem for Shakur if he’s not 100%.
Yoshino is coming off a spectacular sixth round knockout win over Masayoshi Nakatani last November in Saitama, Japan.
Nakatani is the same guy that former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez had huge problems against in 2019 and complained afterward about never wanting to fight another tall opponent ever again.
Shakur Stevenson more dedicated now
“All I think is boxing. Eating, sleeping & breathing boxing,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype about his newfound dedication to the sport. “There’s no way you’ve seen everything in my bag.
“With the Jamel [Herring] and [Oscar] Valdez fight, them was some great performances, but that wasn’t me at my best. I wasn’t eating, sleeping & breathing boxing. Now it’s a whole different level right now.
“All I could think about is the fight. I watched so many tapes for this camp. I can’t tell the world what made me lose focus, but I will say this. Boxing, with how lame it’s been, that kind of made me go away from engaging in it as much.
“I should have ignored that stuff. I think there’s a lot of lame stuff in boxing. I feel like the pound-for-pound list is lame, and there’s a lot of picking & choosing. There’s a lot of lame stuff in boxing that is going on,” Shakur said.
Yoshino doesn’t worry Shakur
“Yeah, he’s too straight up & down for me for sure,” said Shakur about his opponent Shuichiro Yoshino for Saturday. “He’s better than what people think. People look at him like, ‘Easy cakewalk for Shakur,’ but if I was fighting Nakatani, they’d be telling me, ‘That’s a great test at 135,’ and that dude [Yoshino] just knocked Nakatani out in five rounds.
“Clearly, he’s a great test, and I can’t take nothing away from that dude, but people have to understand that I tried to get these big fights in my first fight in the division. You don’t see someone coming into the division trying to fight an Isaac Cruz or [William] Zepeda, and all those dudes turned me down.
“Those dudes turned me down. I had dms with Kambosos. I said, ‘Let’s fight.’ What he said was reasonable. I can’t take anything away from what he said. He said he’s been fighting all these big fights. I get it.
“That’s what the people will say, but the people aren’t always right,” said Stevenson about him believing he can still fight Gervonta Davis, despite him being with different management and fighting on a different network.
“I feel like we both could come together and find an agreement together that’s reasonable for both of us in a big fight. We’ll see when it comes to fight time, but I ain’t going for that s**t,” said Shakur when asked if he’ll allow Tank Davis to touch his chin with his fist ahead of a fight with him the way Ryan Garcia let him.
“Me and him aren’t fighting each other right now, so there’s no point in me even speaking on that s**t. When we’re fighting each other, then it’s time to speak about that, but right now, there’s no point in talking about it because me and him aren’t fighting each other.
“Ryan, I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He shouldn’t be letting that man touch his chin. He’s got to go home and look at his family. Don’t Ryan got a daughter? He’s got to look his daughter in the eye when you let someone punk you and put their hand on your chin like that.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with Ryan. I’m surprised that he didn’t feel no type of way about that. I don’t think it makes a difference. Face-offs and all that kind of stuff makes any difference.
“What matter the most is what happens in training and you’re sparring and how you look in your training. That’s the most important key. The person that looks in training and they’re having a good camp, nine times out of ten, they’re going to look good on fight night,” said Steveenson.
Intimidation doesn’t work
“What you see is what you get. I don’t think you’re going to scare somebody by staring them down too much and put your fist on them,” Shakur said. “I don’t think that’s going to play a part in the big fights like that.
“Tank wins. Ryan not on that level. I don’t think Ryan is on the same level as Tank. Tank is on a whole different level than Ryan. So, I see Tank winning that fight, but maybe Ryan can shock the world, shock me, and shock the entire world. You never know. It’s boxing.
“I think with Ryan, a lot of people look at him like, ‘Oh, he’s the Instagram model. He’s not a real boxer.’ But Ryan has been in silver glove tournaments with me [for a long time], so he’s clearly a boxer.
“I’ve seen Ryan at a 1000 national tournaments. I fought Ryan. Me and Ryan fought in the amateurs. Yeah, I won that fight for sure. Ryan says it was competitive. I didn’t think it was a competitive fight.
“I thought I clearly beat him, but it was the amateurs. That stuff don’t really don’t matter. I guess when you’re 15 years old, that stuff don’t play a part in these big fights nowadays. The amateurs is in the past.
“The professional is where it matters. That’s where it really is. I don’t even look at it that way, but I seen Ryan a lot in the amateurs, and he’s a real fighter for sure.
“Yeah, I sparred him,” said Shakur when asked if he sparred Gervonta Davis in the past.
