Terence Crawford wants to see WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson unify the 135-lb division and silence all the doubters who view him as a fake, a timid runner afraid to exchange.
What Crawford wants for Shakur may be impossible for him to do. He’s not shown the talent to unify at 135, and he’s fortunate not to have a loss from last November already.
Stevenson lacks the power and courage to swim with the sharks at lightweight, and he wore out his welcome with his last promoters after being booed out of the T-Mobile.
If Shakur follows Crawford’s wishes of fighting the best, he will likely lose to Gervonta Davis and Vasily Lomachenko. Those fighters are levels above Shakur in offensive ability, and he won’t beat them if he’s afraid to exchange.
“I would like to see Shakur Stevenson do exactly what he’s doing now. Keeping his name out there in the media, people are talking about him,” said Terence Crawford to Ariel Helwani’s YouTube channel about wanting WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson to continue with his same career approach, boxing, not getting hit.
Shakur is keeping his name in the media by posting on X, but his posts mostly respond to the many people calling him ‘boring,’ which is impossible for him to refute. That’s his style.
The judges won’t give Shakur a decision win if he only throws a punch and then takes off like a rocket to avoid being hit. That’s his style, and it doesn’t work at 135 against the talented fighters in the division. He refuses to stay in the pocket, and that archaic Mayweather-esque style doesn’t fit in this era of the sport. It’s passe now.
Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) might be able to prove himself by taking on WBA champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in November. Earlier today, Tank Davis’ assistant coach, Kenny Ellis, said that he’s interested in Shakur being Gervonta’s next opponent now that Vasily Lomachenko has chosen to take the remainder of the year off.
The odds of Tank and Shakur agreeing to terms for a fight are slim, because Stevenson views him as on the same level as, and he’s not. So, the fight has very little chance of getting made unless Shakur is desperate.
If Stevenson doesn’t take it now, he might never get it because he’s shown vulnerability since moving up, and he might lose. He came close to losing to Edwin De Los Santos last November and landed almost nothing in the fight except weak jabs.
“I want see him fight the best in the [lightweight] division,” Crawford continued about Shakur. “I want see him unify the division and shut these guys up who are saying, ‘He’s not this great fighter they think he is’. I want see those guys get in the ring with him.”
If Shakur gets his way and fights Tank, he’ll likely lose badly and be at rock bottom of the lightweight division. I’d hate to see Shakur have to claw his way back to the top after losing to Tank by knockout and needing to go to through young killers like Abdullah Mason.
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