Shakur Stevenson says ‘young black guys’ are held to a different standard when it comes to entertaining in the ring

If anybody was going to understand the frustration of Shakur Stevenson in the aftermath of his much-maligned WBC lightweight title defense against Artem Harutyunyan in July, it was always going to be Andre Ward. 

Aside from the fact Stevenson considers Ward one of his mentors, there is also a clear parallel between the two in terms of how the ease with which they beat opponents leaves them susceptible to being labelled “boring” by those who like to see their boxers have to work a little harder for their wins. 

For some, seeing Stevenson cruise to victory and elect not to risk defeat in order to secure a more complete victory – say, a stoppage – has become a habit and pattern they wish he would break. Similarly, Ward, back when cleaning up at both super-middleweight and light-heavyweight, would often face criticism for the way in which he would shut down opponents, take away their best weapons, and then do all he could to ensure his own safety, only too aware of the dangers of becoming greedy in a fight.

If considered a mentor, it should come as no surprise, then, that Stevenson, like Ward, values his faculties and priorities winning over everything else. Cut from the same cloth, he again demonstrated this philosophy in his fight with Harutyunyan and says, given the circumstances, the performance made sense – at least to him. 

Speaking to Ward on “All the Smoke Fight”, Stevenson explained, “I haven’t been outside the ring that long in my entire career. It was nine or 10 months. The first round was getting back in that rhythm, like okay, I’m back. Now in the third round I’m feeling it; I started touching the body a little bit more. Then I tried to pick up the pace and I had it going. There was a moment where I felt like I had it, it was right there. But I kind of let it get away. I felt like it was going to happen, and I felt like he was breaking down, but at the end of the day these fighters are training extremely hard and come fight night they’re going to give it all they’ve got. He gave it all he had and he did what he could to make sure he stayed on his feet. I take my hat off to him.”

Though he won the fight well, landing a decision by scores of 116-112, 118-110, and 119-109, the reaction to Stevenson’s 22nd pro win had it feeling more like a defeat than a victory. The manner of it was clearly not to everyone’s taste and no sooner had he realized this than Stevenson started to wonder about the true meaning of victory and whether it is enough, today, just to win. 

“Did you feel like it was warranted (the post-fight reaction), or do you feel like people are tripping?” asked Ward, to which Stevenson, 22-0 (10), replied: “I felt like people were tripping. I mean, I would get it if this applied to everybody. If those standards applied to the (Vasiliy) Lomachenkos, the (Oleksandr) Usyks… I’ve seen them in fights where I didn’t feel it was very entertaining. But a lot of people don’t do to them what they do to somebody like me. When I’m in a fight where I’m dominating, pressing, coming forward, they still find something to say. But if it’s Lomachenko… I don’t hear nobody ever say Lomachenko was being boring when he fought (Jose) Pedraza. I didn’t hear anything about him being boring when he fought (Guillermo) Rigondeaux. He barely even touched Rigondeaux. He barely landed any punches on Rigondeaux, but nobody claims he was boring. He was coming forward and making a fight, but I just feel like it’s a different standard on young black guys. I feel like our people need to like learn how to stand with us, not play against us. Because we’re playing right into other people’s hands – no disrespect to nobody else.”