Gervonta Davis’ coach, Calvin Ford, says they’ll ship a contract to Shakur Stevenson for a struggle. If WBC light-weight champion Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) agrees, they’ll struggle subsequent.
The ‘Huge 4’ and Shakur’s Price
Ford desires that struggle for WBA light-weight champion Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) as a result of he views the New Jersey native Shakur as one of many “Huge 4” that he desires for his fighter.
Some consider that Shakur will worth himself out like he did in opposition to Devin Haney and wind up shedding the Tank Davis struggle as a result of he doesn’t acknowledge that he’s not a star.
He’s only a belt-holder with followers who take pleasure in his retro Mayweather-esque outdated preventing fashion, which doesn’t match on this period of boxing. The game is modified as a result of heavy competitors from MMA, and now it’s about entertaining the followers, and the previous fashion of hit-and-not-get-hit doesn’t work with followers or the networks.
“We going to ship you a contract with the cash. In the event that they take it, they take it. We simply seen what occurred simply now when Loma didn’t take the struggle,” mentioned coach Calvin Ford to Fannon Boxing about Group Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis planning to ship a contract to Shakur Stevenson for a struggle in November. “Shakur is likely one of the final of the large 4, to let you know the reality.”
Ford doesn’t say who the “Huge 4” are, nevertheless it consists of these fighters:
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Shakur Stevenson
- William Zepeda
- Denys Berinchyk
Shakur’s Overestimation
It’s unlikely that Shakur will settle for the deal from Tank Davis as a result of he believes that his WBC title and the world titles he captured at 126 and 130 depend for parity. They don’t, and people are meaningless when negotiating with a PPV attraction like Tank Davis.
Shakur will possible reject the deal and be the place he’s now, left to struggle the obscure fighters like he’s been doing. If Stevenson, 27, indicators with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, he’ll be caught preventing 140-pounders, and he received’t final lengthy in opposition to them.
“Individuals are divided down the center. They don’t know who’s going to win struggle. Boxing not often does this. Will these guys give us this struggle?” mentioned Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV concerning the Tank Davis vs. Shakur Stevenson conflict.
Hardcore boxing followers consider Tank Davis will simply beat Shakur. What Malignaggi is speaking about is unclear as a result of folks on social media consider Shakur stands no probability in opposition to Tank Davis. All you want to do is take a look at the shut name Shakur had in opposition to Edwin De Los Santos final November to know that he would lose badly to Tank.
“You possibly can see that Shakur is speaking about wanting the struggle. He’s been wanting this struggle. Shakur is the one one which has been calling all these guys out and the struggle by no means occurs. He’s a free agent. He can do it,” mentioned Malignaggi.
The reality is, Vasily Lomachenko had been calling out Tank Davis for years however with no luck. It’s not Shakur who needed the struggle in opposition to Tank. Loma needed it however was ignored by Tank’s earlier promoters at Mayweather Promotions.
“Coming off the final struggle [against Artem Harutyunyan], he truly wants it greater than Tank,” mentioned Teddy Atlas.
Public Notion
Shakur positively wants the Tank Davis struggle after delivering his second poor efficiency in opposition to Artem Harutyunyan on July sixth, following his dreadful effort in opposition to De Los Santos final November. If Shakur doesn’t get the Tank struggle now, his worth will proceed to plummet.
Stevenson was booed loudly by followers in each of these fights, however the unkindest reduce was when his followers started streaming out of the Prudential Middle starting within the eighth spherical of his struggle in opposition to Harutyunyan.
“Shakur wants all the large names as a result of it comes all the way down to what he can do in opposition to all of those guys,” mentioned boxing knowledgeable Chris Algieri. “He’s so otherworldly good. He makes the fights look really easy. So while you put a man in that’s not that well-known, he doesn’t get the popularity for it.”
Shakur’s Declining Attraction
Shakur isn’t “otherworldly good.” He’s boring to look at, and he’s failing to realize a following with the boxing public, who hates his non-engaging, play-it-safe fashion of preventing, which is irritating to look at. It was embarrassing how light-weight prospect Abdullah Mason upstaged Shakur on his undercard, delivering one other sparking efficiency and getting probably the most fan applause in Stevenson’s dwelling metropolis in Newark.
“I’m going to convey up the Oscar Valdez struggle [against Shakur in 2022]. Folks thought it was going to be a struggle. It wasn’t. It was a wash,” mentioned Algieri.
Algieri fails to say that Oscar Valdez was coming off a controversial twelve-round resolution win over Robson Conceicao in September 2021 when he fought Shakur in April 2022.
Many boxing followers believed Valdez ought to have misplaced the struggle in opposition to Conceicao. What Stevenson did in opposition to Valdez isn’t that spectacular while you take a look at what Conceicao had completed to him in his earlier fights.
