WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson called out Vasily Lomachenko after his win over Artem Harutyunyan at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
(Courtesy: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
Even though Shakur’s contract with Top Rank expired with his twelve-round unanimous decision against Harutyunyan (13-2, 7 KOs), he still wants to fight IBF champion Lomachenko, who they promote. That’s not going to happen, especially now.
Booed by Hometown Crowd
Shakur put on another dull performance on Saturday night and was roundly booed by his hometown fans at the Prudential Center. Showing how out of touch he is, Shakur blamed the boos on Harutyunyan, saying that he was “running” and just trying to “survive.”
Abdullah Mason Steals the Show
Shakur won the decision by the scores 119-109, 118-110, and 116-112. It wasn’t entertaining to watch, and Shakur was a big reason. The fighter that did impress fans tonight was lightweight contender Abdullah Mason (14-0, 12 KOs), who destroyed Luis Lebron by a third-round knockout on the undercard and looked outstanding.
Fans on social media believe that Shakur is just looking for a payday against Lomachenko and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Neither of those guys wants to fight him, and the boos from Shakur’s fans didn’t help his case.
T-Shirt Tactic Backfires
The t-shirt that Shakur wore at the post-fight press conference tonight showed how desperate and bitter he is about not getting the fight against Vasily Lomachenko. The lettering on Shakur’s t-shirt said, ‘Bob [Arum] is saving his son [Vasily Lomachenko] from this a** whooping.’
“That’s the message. Tell him to fight me,” said Shakur about wanting to fight Lomachenko next. “Wouldn’t that be a fun fight? Someone comes in and tries to win. It’s a fun fight to make. It’s technically good.”
Lomachenko isn’t going to fight Shakur because there’s no money in the match-up, and he doesn’t want his match to be booed by the fans. That would be bad for Loma’s image to be a part of a fight that fans boo. Obviously, it’s old hat for Shakur to deal with the boos, but not Lomachenko.
“There’s probably a lot of people right now saying, ‘Lomachenko will beat him. He didn’t stop this guy.’ A lot of people probably won’t believe me. So, why not make the fight? No, he doesn’t want to fight,” said Shakur.
“That dude turned me down a bunch of times. That dude don’t want to fight me,” said Shakur about William Zepeda.
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