By Brian Webber: Shakur Stevenson is waiting & hoping that the Face of Boxing, Gervonta Davis, will eventually give him a shot at fighting him because he wants to prove to the world how good he is by beating the Baltimore native.
Stevenson is fighting Edwin De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) next on November 16th for the WBC lightweight title, and he thinks with that belt, he’ll potentially motivate Tank Davis to fight him. It doesn’t seem likely.
Tank Davis hasn’t shown interest in fighting defensive guys in the past like Vasily Lomachenko, so it’s reasonable to assume that he’s not going to look in Stevenson’s direction anytime soon, if ever.
If this is the fight that Shakur will hang around at lightweight waiting& hoping to get, he could be wasting his time.
Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) is realistic and admits that he has nothing to offer Gervonta (29-0, 27 KOs) because he’s a pay-er-view star, and he’s not yet reached that level. Indeed, if Stevenson keeps getting avoided, he might never jump to PPV.
If Shakur can’t entice WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion TankDavis to fight him soon, he will need to follow Devin Haney up to 140 because there aren’t any opportunities for big-money fights for him at 135.
Stevenson confident of beating Haney
“He’s not going to be able to beat me,” said Shakur Stevenson to Million Dollaz about Edwin De Los Santos. “He’s strong with power, but he’s not going to beat me.
“All you hear Bill [Haney] talk about is ‘Shakur.’ Why does he talk about me so much? Why is he so interested in me? Bill is cap. Bill knows I’m going to smoke Devin if we’re going to be real about it.”
Haney could have fought Shakur, but he chose to move up to 140. That’s a fight that probably never happens unless Stevenson becomes a massive star fighting fringe-level contenders.
“He knows I’m going to smoke Devin, but he’s got to do what he got to do for his son,” said Shakur. “That’s why he put that video out of sparring. Did you see what was going on in my face? I was smiling at him.
“If someone is dead tired and ready to get out of the ring are they smiling? They dead tired and ready to get out of the ring because they got their a** whooped.
“Me and this man [Haney] sparred three times that week, and this was the last one. I done eight rounds, ten rounds, and however many rounds that they wanted all week. I got off on him and beat him up again. Tell them [the Haney’s] to post the actual video of the sparring. They got the video.
“Tell them to post the sparring, and y’all will see what happened in the sparring. I was playing around with that man. This dude [Haney] came close to losing his last fight [against Vasily Lomaachenko].
“How do you know that he’s not going to take an L [against Regis Prograis]? If he takes an L, then then the fight goes down. If he fights Regis right now and Regis beats him. What happens with me and Devin as a fight? Nobody wants to see it.
“The price that we could make now probably isn’t as big as it could be, but it could go down if somebody takes an L,” said Shakur about a fight with Haney.
Shakur has nothing to offer Tank
“There’s a million fighters that don’t want to get in the ring with me. It’s very stressful because this is what I do for a living,” said Shakur.
The reason that fighters don’t want to fight Shakur are as follows:
- He’s a defensive specialist that is hard to hit
- Difficult to beat
- Not popular
- Different side of the street
“#1 is Tank,” said Shakur when asked who he wants to fight. “Me and Tank is the best fight. There is one fight that needs to happen in boxing. I’m not Tank. He’s the pay-per-view star,” said Shakur.
“I can’t throw no offers to Tank. Who am I to throw an offer to the biggest star in boxing? What am I going to offer him? It doesn’t make sense.”
If Shakur signs with PBC once his contract ends with Top Rank, he can increase his chances of getting a fight with Tank Davis. Signing with Mayweather Promotions would help.
“That would have to be on their part on their team to do that. I want to do that. I would love that. I think that’s the biggest fight in boxing skills-wise,” said Shakur.
“I want to prove to the world who I truly am. You could name five fighters, but all those other dudes don’t matter. There’s just one fighter that I want to fight when it comes down to it.
