Lightweight Shakur Stevenson compared himself to the greats of the past when asked about his thoughts on being booed by fans at the T-Mobile Arena during and after his victory over Edwin De Los Santos last Thursday night in Las Vegas.
After the fight, which Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs), the A-side guy, won by a debatable twelve round unanimous decision over De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs), he said that other fighters, whom he refers to as “greats,” were booed just like him.
Shakur said these three “greats” had been booed
– Andre Ward
– Floyd Mayweather Jr.
– Terence Crawford
It’s questionable whether you can label any of those fighters as greats, but it doesn’t help Shakur to use them to try and weasel out of taking ownership of his dismal performance against De Los Santos.
By Shakur saying that Crawford, Mayweather & Ward were booed as well, he’s using a cheap method to try and escape blame for his performance. Shakur is dragging those fighters into the mud to join in with his misery, attempting to squirm out of the mess he made with his performance.
Stevenson reacts to being booed
“I heard booing. I don’t care. I seen the greats get booed. I seen Andre Ward get booed. I seen Floyd [Mayweather] get booed,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media after his win over Edwin De Los Santos, reacting to the fans booing him during and immediately after the contest ended.
If Shakur truly doesn’t care that he was booed by fans, that suggests that he’s a narcissist and incapable of understanding when he’s messed up.
People who have out-of-control egos can’t take ownership when they make mistakes, and they instead point fingers or, in the case of Shakur, bring other so-called “greats” into the discussion to make themselves feel good.
“Look at Terence Crawford earlier in his career when he was out-boxing people, and they wanted him to stand there and trade. I see him get booed,” Shakur continued.
In some of Crawford’s earlier performances, he was NOT an entertaining fighter, as he focused on counter-punching, staying on the outside, and using movement. He was boring to watch and deserved to be booed, and he didn’t look great, and he still doesn’t, unless he’s fighting a weight-drained Errol Spence Jr.
“I don’t care. Some nights, you’re going to have these nights, and some nights, they’re going to love you. The nights that they love me, I can’t wait for them,’ said Stevenson. “I am one of the best fighters in the sport of boxing.”
Shakur has been boring to watch from the jump, and it wasn’t just this fight or the Jeremiah Nakathilia contest. If you go through all of Shakur’s fights, most have been lackluster affairs.
The only time that he’s mildly entertaining is when he’s matched against mediocre opposition like Felix Caraballo, Shuichiro Yoshino, and Albert Guevera.
“I apologize to my fans IF I had a bad performance. I could have done more.”
Shakur used the word “if” when talking about his performance, which suggests an unwillingness to admit fully that he was dreadful.
De Los Santos furious with decision
“He came for a track meet. He didn’t come to fight. I did my job. He came to survive. That’s what he did. They gifted him the title,” said De Los Santo, talking about Shakur after the fight.
You can understand De Los Santos’ anger about his loss, as he feels he deserved the victory, and many boxing fans agree with him.
He was the one making the fight against Shakur, but you can argue that he had the deck stacked against him from the get-go, fighting a fighter who is hyped and being given a massive push to the top by his promoters, who are trying to turn him into a PPV attraction.
The sad part about this is De Los Santos likely won’t get another chance to fight for a world title, as he’ll be dropped down in the rankings. There won’t be a rematch with De Los Santos, and he’ll likely be fed to one of Top Rank’s talented lightweights, lose, and be forgotten.
If anything, Top Rank might offer De Los Santos a fight against Raymond Muratalla or Vasily Lomachenko, which he won’t win because those guys have better skills.
