By Allan Fox: Shakur Stevenson wants a mega-fight against WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and believes they would break the existing PPV record of 4.6 million buys set by Floyd Mayweather Jr in his fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
It sounds like a hopeless pipe dream with no chance of ever happening. Shakur needs to wake up and follow Ryan Garcia and others like him to light welterweight.
Stevenson is arguably a BIG 140-pounder who drains down to fight smaller opposition at 135 to gain an advantage.
Given Shakur’s massive size for the lightweight division, he really needs to move up to 140 or 147 if he wants to become a star before his speed & reflexes begin deteriorating in a few years.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing happening for Shakur at 135 in terms of big fights, and the sooner he recognizes that the better off he’ll be.
If Shakur stubbornly stays at 135, he’ll never be the star that he could be. Sometimes it’s better to move on when you recognize that you’ve hit a barrier in the form of a glass ceiling and can’t progress, and Stevenson clearly has hit one.
Shakur’s resume, such as it is:
– Shuichiro Yoshino
– Robson Conceição
– Jeremiah Nakathila
– Toka Khan Clary
– Felix Caraballo
– Joet Gonzalez
– Alberto Guevara
– Oscar Valdez
Shakur’s resume isn’t quite good enough to deserve a fight with Tank, is it? Fighting these types of guys won’t cut it if Stevenson wants to be accepted as an opponent for the true king of the division.
Unfortunately, Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) is on the wrong side of the street, fighting for Top Rank, and his chance of getting his dream fight against the PBC-managed Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) are virtually slim & none.
Still, even if Shakur were with PBC, Tank wouldn’t fight him because he’s a defensive-minded counter-puncher, and those fighters tend to be avoided by knockout artists & brawlers.
Stevenson predicts record-breaking PPV against Tank
“Yeah, I think that could be one of the biggest fights,” said Shakur Stevenson to iFL TV about a dream fight between him and Gervonta Davis. “I think that fight could be even bigger [than Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence Jr] because of our personalities and being who we are.
“It’s going to be very entertaining in the lead-up. I think that could be one of the biggest fights in the world when it happens. I’ll say this. I think me and Tank could break records.
“I think we could break a lot of records. I think we could get there,” said Shakur when asked if a fight between him and Gervonta breaks pay-per-view records. “I think that could happen.
“I’m not sure,” said Stevenson on when he believes a fight with Tank Davis will happen. “I’m not on the PBC side. I don’t know if they’re planning on it anytime soon. It’s all on them. He’s the big pay-per-view star.
“He’s got a lot of people around him, and they’re strategically planning his next fights in his career,” said Steevenson about Gervonta.
Shakur wants Lomachenko for vacant WBC 135-lb title
“I think that’s the fight that should happen next. Lomachenko was waiting to see if he was going to fight Devin again. With Devin Haney going up to 140 lbs, I think it’s only right for me and Lomachenko to fight; that’s the fight to make.
There’s no other fight to make as far as skill level. The best got to fight the best.
“I’ve said it on social media. I’ve said it everywhere. Everybody knows wh0 I want. I wanted Devin, and that fight fell through. The next in line is Lomachenko. I got three guys on my list, the top guys, and I want to make some big fights.
“People need to stop sleeping on what I’ve accomplished in the sport of boxing,” said Shakur in reaction to being told his ranking in ESPN’s pound-for-pound list.
“I went from 126 and won a world title, went to 130 and won a world title. I unified at 130. At 135 in my second fight, I’m about to fight for a world title. So that is going to be three weight classes winning world titles,” said Shakur.
