By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson continues using Devin Haney’s name to help promote his fight next week against Edwin De Los Santos on November 16th on ESPN.
Shakur’s constant name-dropping of Haney & Gervonta Davis’ names may have helped increase interest in his fight against De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs), but is troubling when you see a fighter not even mentioning his opponent’s name during long interviews.
It can’t be an accident on Shakur’s part that he’s mentioning Haney more than he is his next opponent De Los Santos. It’s promoting 101. If you have an obscure opponent that boxing fans aren’t familiar with, talk about popular guys 24/7 in the build-up. It’s sneaky, but it works.
Today, Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) floated the idea of moving up to 140 to face Haney if the fight “makes sense” money-wise. Shakur says he believes in himself and would have no problems going up in weight to light welterweight.
It’s unlikely that a fight between Shakur & Haney could happen in any weight class because the negotiations would fall apart over money. Shakur would likely want to be either A-side or have parity, which wouldn’t work.
Given Shakur’s huge welterweight-sized frame, of course, he could move up to 140 without any trouble for a fight with Haney, Regis Prograis, Ryan Garcia, or Tefoimo Lopez. Shakur looked considerably bigger than welterweight champion Terence Crawford when the two posed for a picture recently.
Shakur says Tank Davis will fight him
“You can say that they’ve been talking about it for years, but I just had one fight at 135. I’ve been at 130, and those guys have been at 135,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype about how people have been talking about him being in the mix with Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis for years.
“You can’t place no blame on me because I haven’t been in this division,” said Shakur. “Nah, I’ve got a lot more faith in the Tank fight happening before Devin. I think Tank is competitive, and deep down inside, he wants to prove to the world that he wants to beat me, and I want to prove that I beat him,” said Shakur.
It’s so unlikely that a fight between Tank Davis & Shakur ever happening that it’s not even a discussion point. Entertainment-wise, it’s not a great fight, as Shakur is a safety-first, Mayweather type of fighter who is on the dull side with his fighting style. The build-up would be good and much better than the actual fight.
In terms of entertainment value, Tank Davis would provide more excitement for fans by fighting these contenders at 135:
Frank Martin
Raymond Muratalla
William Zepeda
Isaac Cruz
Vasily Lomachenko
Edwin De Los Santos
“I feel like he’ll fight me. With Devin, I disagree with you when you say he’s going to go up to 147. I think he’s going to be at 140 for a long time. Even if he got bigger and the weight was hard to make, he wouldn’t want to fight those dudes at 147,” said Stevenson.
If Shakur is serious about believing that Tank Davis will fight him one of these days, he’s deluded because he’s going to be waiting a long, long time for that to happen.
Eventually, Shakur will figure out what time it is and give up on his pathetic, hopeless pipe dream and focus on more realistic options like fighting guys like Jaimaine Ortiz and George Kambosos Jr.
Stevenson expects Haney to stay at 140
“I don’t believe his [Haney] confidence is that high for him to just jump from weight to weight like him doing, going from 126, 130, and 135,” said Shakur about Haney not going up to 147. “I don’t think his confidence is that high just to go to 147. At 140, I feel he’s [Haney] going to try and stay there a long time like he did with 135.”
If Haney is strategic about the guys he faces, he can move up to 147 and enjoy success. Look at Shakur. He moved up to 130 & 135, but he didn’t fight the killers in those weight classes. Shakur never fought Robeisy Ramirez at 126, Emanuel Navarrete, or O’Shaquie Foster at 130, and he didn’t fight Raymond Muratalla at 135.
“Boots is at 147. I believe in myself wholeheartedly,” said Shakur. “It don’t matter because I will stand on what I’m saying. I wouldn’t mind fighting at 140, but let me get my feet wet at 135 and keep feeling the division out.
“Even if I’m not physically at that weight and weighing close to. I spar with 140-pounders all the time, and I know they say that sparring and fighting is different. I spar with 140-pounders, 147-pounders, and I been in there with 154-pounders. Brian Mendoza and me sparred when I was a 126-pounder,” said Stevenson.
Shakur needs to be upfront with the fans by pointing out that he’s basically a welterweight in size, and of course, he’s more than big enough to fight at 140, as he would have to cut weight to make that division. Like a lot of fighters, Shakur fights in a weight class below his body size.
Shakur might as well move up to 140 because he’s NEVER going to get a fight against Gervonta Davis, and probably won’t get a match against Lomachenko either. Muratalla would fight him, but he probably doesn’t want any part of facing him.
If the rumors are true of Shakur getting knocked out in sparring by Liam Para, Muratalla would be a nightmare for him, and it wouldn’t be good for Top Rank’s revenue stream. They’re trying to make a superstar out of Shakur, and Muratalla would mess up their plans.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind, but it’s got to make sense,” said Shakur about a fight between him and Haney. “If it makes sense, we can get something going.
“Yeah, because we’re at the same weight class, and honestly, I think that Tank will fight me. I don’t think he won’t fight me. I think that would be a tremendous fight, and I can’t wait.”
Shakur is going to be waiting for Santa Claus forever to get the Tank fight, and it would be better for him to face the reality that it’s NOT going to happen,
“There’s nothing y’all can do. It’ll come down to when Tank feels it’s the right time,” said Shakur. “I think that being that they’re smart businessmen over there [PBC & Mayweather Promotions, the handlers for Gervonta].
“Being that they’re smart businessmen, they know how to cash out and make it the most for the both of us. It would be a tremendous event, and I would love to do it,” said Shakur.
