Teddy Atlas, pod host, suspects that Top Rank didn’t want to re-sign Shakur Stevenson because he wasn’t good for business. They wouldn’t have let him get close to free agency if they wanted to keep Shakur.
Top Rank’s Hidden Agenda
Atlas believes Top Rank intentionally matched Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) against a weaker opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, last Saturday night, knowing there was a good chance he would fail to impress in victory. They knew he’d win, but he would show his shortcomings.
Shakur could have impressed by destroying Harutyunyan, but that’s not his style of fighting. He did try to score a knockout, but he couldn’t do it and wound up looking poor as always.
Based on that performance, Atlas believes that Shakur may have difficulty finding another promoter interested in signing him unless they can produce Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for him, which would make a lot of money in a one-fight deal. Apart from that, Shakur isn’t worth paying much to, and his fights fail to bring in ratings, sell tickets, or do well on PPV.
Atlas Questions Top Rank’s Motives
“I don’t think they wanted to sign him. They let him become a free agent,” said Teddy Atlas on his YouTube channel about his belief that Top Rank wasn’t really interested in re-signing Shakur Stevenson.
“If they wanted him, they wouldn’t have let him get that far. They picked an opponent that wasn’t that hard,” said Atlas on Top Rank choosing an easy option, giving him Artem Harutyunyan for Shakur’s final fight of his contract with them.
Shakur likely wanted a massive contract for him to re-sign with Top Rank, which wouldn’t have made sense for them unless he became a PPV attraction and if they could match him against Tank Davis and Vasily Lomachenko.
Stevenson would likely never be a PPV draw unless he was fighting those two, and it’s questionable whether Top Rank could have made those fights.
“If they really wanted to get rid of him, they could have put him in with a guy they thought could beat him, because then they know he’s leaving. So they try and do him a dirty on the way out. They know that, and they couldn’t afford to pay for that,” said Atlas.
“So they went the other route. ‘We’re going to give him a guy he should shine with,’ and I think they thought he wouldn’t because they know what he is. He’s a terrific talent, but he’s not exciting.
“You put him in with a guy that he can dismantle, but you also know he could show his shortcomings, too. It’s an entertainment business. He’s going to show why we let his contract run out. Top Rank made him a millionaire,” said Atlas about Shakur.
Stevenson likely didn’t get the money in his contract with Top Rank that we saw Ryan Garcia get from one fight against Tank Davis. Shakur’s failure to become a PPV attraction for Top Rank hurt his money-making ability.
“They put him in a fight where he’s going to sink or swim and show whether he’s going to get any other people interested, clamoring again and networks clamoring to put him on. I don’t know many people that would pay $80 for PPV for him,” said Atlas about Shakur.
Stevenson’s performance against Hartuyunyan might not hurt his marketability if a potential promoter like Matchroom, PBC, or Mayweather Promotions can produce Tank Davis or if they can protect him long enough to turn him into another Floyd clone.
Shakur doesn’t have Mayweather’s talent, but he’s arrogant like he was during his career and has a similar way of getting fans to watch his fights by them wanting to see him lose.
Stevenson’s Marketability and Future Options
“If that’s the case, why would Top Rank want to re-sign him? It’s a business. It’s about how many seats he can sell and the PPV he can sell. If that was their goal, they accomplished that,” said Atlas about Top Rank, putting Shakur in with a fighter he was supposed to dominate but didn’t, lowering his marketability as he was going out the door into free agency.
It’s not Top Rank’s fault that Shakur failed to impress against a fighter that he was supposed to dominate. If Shakur is as he tells fans, he should have destroyed Harutyunyan, given that he’s a fringe contender coming off a loss to Frank Martin.
This was someone that other lightweight fighters would have easily beaten. Even the 20-year-old prospect Abdullah Mason would have likely made easy work of Harutyunyanm, but he’s not rated in the top 15 at lightweight.
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