Promoter Bob Arum dismisses Shakur Stevenson’s feedback about his perception that he’s been defending Vasily Lomachenko from him by deliberately not making the conflict to maintain him from getting crushed.
Arum factors out that fighters have a say in why they want to combat, and it’s not for him to determine.
Shakur’s Frustration
Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs), the WBC light-weight champion, has been bitter about Arum’s choice to combat IBF champion Lomachenko, who was in the identical Prime Rank secure.
Shakur felt that Arum ought to have given him Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr. after he moved as much as the light-weight division in 2023. Nevertheless, as a substitute of Stevenson getting these two fights at 135, he was matched towards these fighters:
– Artem Harutyunyan
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Shuichiro Yoshino
Most followers agree that Shakur carried out poorly in his final two fights towards Harutyunyan and De Los Santos, exhibiting that he’s a boring fighter who lacks energy, is afraid to have interaction, and doesn’t possess the precise ingredient of expertise to develop into a PPV attraction.
“These guys like him don’t understand different fighters have a say in issues. He paints an image – everyone is a puppet however him, like I could make any combat I need,” mentioned Bob Arum to FightsATW, speaking about Shakur Stevenson.
“Listening to buddies and strangers on the web doesn’t serve Shakur as a result of these of us have their very own agendas and are usually not versed within the realities of big-time prizefighting,” Arum continued. “He has some good individuals round him. However the ‘road’ individuals who discuss to him don’t perceive.”
Hinting at Departure
Some imagine that Shakur’s choice to begin hinting about leaving Prime Rank quickly after he moved as much as 135 in 2023 had a detrimental impact, leading to them giving him the much less well-liked fighters Yoshino, De Los Santos, and Harutyunyan. We’ll by no means know for certain.
In hindsight, Shakur ought to have saved quiet and never brazenly hinted about wanting to depart Prime Rank when his contract was up. Had Shakur saved his mouth shut and praised Prime Rank, would he have gotten the fights he wished?
Lomachenko was open about his lack of curiosity in preventing Shakur after watching his efficiency towards Edwin De Los Santos, and it was the identical with Tank Davis. Shakur harm his possibilities for giant fights by the best way he fought De Los Santos, as he was booed by the followers, and the harm excuses he made after the combat sounded pathetic.
