Promoter Eddie Hearn believes he’s signed a probably “unbeatable” future “world star” along with his current addition of Shakur Stevenson to his Matchroom promotion.
Excessive-pressure Auditions
With Hearn over-praising Shakur, it places him in a high-pressure state of affairs for his October twelfth match for the promoter towards former IBF tremendous featherweight champion Joe Cordina. For a fighter like Shakur, who has repeatedly turned in lackluster performances in his final three fights, Hearn is placing him in a tricky place the place he’s acquired to try to dwell as much as the glazing.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur has signed a two-fight take care of Hearn, which clearly means he’ll need to impress to be signed to a profitable long-term deal. These two first fights shall be auditions for Shakur, the place he’ll have to act entertainingly.
Stevenson will in all probability lose one of many two fights, and Hearn will wash his palms of him, realizing that he’s not who he thought he was. He has a very good beginner fashion, but it surely’s solely efficient towards non-punchers.
We noticed his limitations when he fought the sluggers Edwin De Los Santos and Jeremiah Nakathila. Stevenson was compelled to run all night time in these contests and was booed loudly by the followers for his failure to face and combat.
Shakur isn’t an entertaining fighter until he’s matched towards a gradual, weaker opponent, like when he fought Jamel Herring and Shuichiro Yoshino.
Unfavorable Matchups
- Joe Cordina: A gimme for Shakur’s first of his twp-fight take care of Matchroom.
- William Zepeda: That is the combat the place the wheels might come off for Shakur as a result of he’s acquired a fighter with a high-pressure fashion that he’s at all times struggled towards. Shakur received’t have the ability to stand and combat Zepeda like he did his final opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, as a result of he has an excessive amount of energy and throws too many photographs. It’s attainable that Shakur will get crushed and be in the identical boat as Devin Haney.
Shakur faces Joe Cordina on October twelfth, with them preventing on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Cordina, 32, is not going to do a lot to extend Shakur’s reputation, regardless of how good he appears to be like on this combat. The previous IBF tremendous featherweight champion Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) misplaced his final combat to 35-year-old Anthony Cacace by an eighth-round knockout on Might 18th.
If the concept was to match Shakur towards a UK fighter from the 130-lb division, Hearn ought to have used Cacace somewhat than Cordina. It nonetheless wouldn’t make sense if the aim is to show Shakur into a world star,” however not less than he could be going through somebody coming off a win as an alternative of a knockout loss.
“I understand how good this child is. He could also be unbeatable. I do know he’s a pound-for-pound star,” mentioned Eddie Hearn to the Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel, glazing Shakur Stevenson’s potential. “There’s one thing about Shakur’s mentality that offers me confidence that he beats all people.
“I feel he’s been massively undersold and ought to be not solely an American famous person however a world famous person,” mentioned Hearn about Shakur.
Hearn sees one thing in WBC light-weight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) that means he’s on the point of stardom and believes he can carry that out. I don’t assume he can. Shakur is simply too restricted as a fighter and goes out of his manner to not alternate along with his opponents.
Hearn will appear to be a genius if he can remodel Shakur into the second coming of Floyd Mayweather Jr, but it surely doesn’t appear doubtless. Floyd was entertaining proper out of the gate when he turned professional. He didn’t turn into boring to look at till later in his profession when he acquired previous and adopted the safety-first fashion that Shakur makes use of at present.
His hit-and-run fashion doesn’t work for constructing a “world star” or perhaps a native, nationwide one within the U.S. If Shakur had been a must-see TV, Prime Rank would have by no means let him get away. They might have paid him a goldmine to remain, however they didn’t; the reason being apparent. He’s boring, and followers don’t need to watch him.
