Trainers Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis and George Mosee felt that Shakur Stevenson failed to perform in his lackluster, subpar, dreadfully bad win over Edwin De Los Santos on November 16th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The thing is, this was a standard type of performance from Shakur in terms of being boring, but it stood out more because his opponent wasn’t a stiff as the other guys he’d fought.
In the end, the judges gave the A-sided, heavily hyped fighter with millions put into his career Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) the win, but he didn’t look like he deserved the victory.
De Los Santos probably would have needed a knockout to get a win over a fighter with the promotional muscle put into Shakur’s career.
The trainer, Mosee, said Shakur resembled 45-year-old Floyd Mayweather with how he fought, and he’s being kind with that comparison.
Even at 45, Floyd fights better than the Shakur that we saw against De Los Santos or in any of his fights in the pro or amateur ranks. Shakur fights like Mayweather Lite, a watered-down Floyd, once you remove the ring IQ, punch variation, and the courage that he had.
Even at Mayweather’s worst, he never fought as poorly as we saw from Shakur in his fights against De Los Santos, Jeremiah Nakathilia, and Robeisy Ramirez.
Stevenson wasn’t his normal self
“I had him winning the fight, but it wasn’t the Shakur that I know,” said trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to YSM Sports Media, talking about Shakur Stevenson’s poor performance against Edwin De Los Santos.
It sounds like Bozy Ennis hasn’t been watching Shakur’s fights closely in the pro or amateur ranks because he ALWAYS fights like this. Go back and watch Shakur’s fights with Jamel Herring, Oscar Valdez, and Joet Gonzalez. He fought the same way against all of those guys, using his awful pull-back style, and fighting like he was packing glass in his chin.
“I heard he messed his right hand up. There’s nothing else I can say about that because he used mostly his jab, and he wasn’t throwing combinations like he normally throws. He was throwing one or two jabs,” said Stevenson.
According to Shakur’s promoter, Bob Arum, he had an injured shoulder. However, Arum didn’t say whether Shakur has been injured his entire pro and amateur career because this is his baseline style. This is how he fights. Has Shakur always had a bum shoulder? If so, he’s too fragile for the game.
Arum and his Top Rank company have their work cut out for them, trying to turn Shakur Stevenson into a PPV attraction or any kind of star unless they want to have him adopt a villain persona and have him create interest in his fights outside of the ring.
In other words, kind of like Adrien Broner. He’s been boring for years, and he’d underperformed for a decade since his loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013, yet he remained popular due to his ability to promote his fights.
Eventually, the fans woke up and grew bored with his lackluster fights and stopped paying attention. Shakur could follow in Broner’s footsteps and become kind of a heel to get fans to watch him for a few years before they get a clue that he’s not entertaining to watch in the ring and never will be.
“He was just throwing the one-two, and just moving and sometimes holding & grabbing,” Bozy said about Shakur. “That wasn’t the Shakur that I know. So something must have been wrong with him.”
Shakur felt the power of De Los Santos and was as terrified as he was in his fights with Nakathilia and Robeisy. He didn’t want to get hit by De Los Santos, so he was constantly retreating & clinching.
“Edwin [De Los Santos] is a good fighter, and he moves enough and moves around. He can box, and he can also punch. That’s probably what made it so difficult for Shakur to get off, too,” said Bozy.
Of course, it was the power of De Los Santos that had Shakur fighting more boring than normal, but again, he always fights the same way. It’s just that in this contest, it was more noticeable.
“I saw a lot of openings that Shakur could capitalize on. Also, with De Los Santos, you can see he [needed] to put more pressure. He should have let his hands go more and stop throwing one and two. Neither one was that busy at all,” said Bozy.
Shakur fought like a 45-year-old Floyd
“He did himself a disservice because I would have liked to have seen him at least maybe 30 seconds at the end of a few rounds risk it a little bit. Just try something,” said trainer George Mosee to YSM Sports Media about Shakur Stevenson from his fight with De Los Santos.
If Shakur tried to break out of his style mold and fight with aggression, De Los Santos probably would have knocked him out within three rounds like he did Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela.
The rumors of Shakur getting knocked out in training camp by his sparring partner Liam Paro likely were true. Also, the leaked sparring video of Shakur getting pummeled by 140-lb sparing partner Kevin Johnson showed clearly why he didn’t want to mix it up with De Los Santos.
Shakur lacks the offensive skills to stand his ground against fighters with power or any kind of ability unless they’re small & faded like Oscar Valdez.
“In this day and age, you got to show and prove. It’s hard for me to take up for him when he goes out there and fights like a 45-year-old Floyd Mayweather. As a promoter, I don’t want Shakur on my card unless we’re giving him a duck to beat up. Outside of that, it’s tough. It was tough to watch,” said Mosee.
Moving forward, you got to wonder what Top Rank is going to do with Shakur. Do they give him a new contract after his existing one expires after his next fight? If so, how can they make it worth keeping him without feeding him soft opposition?
“Again, he [Shakur] could have at least give me 30 seconds at the end of the round,” said Mosee. “Give me a quick flurry. Do something, man. Give me something. He was basically okay with [playing it safe]. He was basically just jabbing the whole fight.
“He beat him with a jab, which sounds good, but it was a bad look. He did himself a disservice. It was even more lackluster than normal, and that’s not good. You got to give the people what they want,” said Mosee about Shakur.
“A superstar is made by being able to attract fans who aren’t fans, and he didn’t do a good job of that at all,” said George about Stevenson.
