Tim Bradley believes the fight between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Shakur Stevenson will prove who is the best fighter in the 135-lb division when it happens. Bradley views those two as the best fighters in the lightweight division, and he thinks it’s a fight that will happen.
Shakur’s Struggles at 135
Stevenson has fought only three times since moving up to 135 and looked terrible in two of the matches. Those performances raised a big question mark about Shakur’s viability at 135, and that’s not among the two best fighters in the division.
Hearn thinks Shakur, 27, might be unbeatable, but fans who saw his fight against Edwin De Los Santos last November see it differently.
Shakur lacks the power and the dog to stand and fight in the pocket against lightweights who can pack a punch. Against Zepeda and Tank, Shakur will need to find a part of his game that he has not shown during his career.
Tank-Shakur might not happen if WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) loses to William Zepeda next February. That’s a fight that Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, plans for him after he takes a warm-up match against Joe Cordina on October 12th in Riyadh.
“I hope so. I don’t see why not,” said Tim Bradley to the Title Sports Network YouTube channel when asked if he believes a fight between Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson will ever happen. “To be the best, you have to beat the best. People need to understand that. Fighters need to understand that.”
Tank vs. Shakur will happen next year, provided Stevenson knows his place and doesn’t foolishly price himself out, thinking he deserves a 50-50 split. If he does that, he won’t get the fight and will never get the opportunity because he’s not on Davis’ level regarding marketability.
“It’s about competition. Gervonta Davis believes he’s the best 135-pounder out there, but you’ve got other guys that think they’re the best. So, now you got to fight. Put it together to find out who is the best so we can see.
“I don’t care if the fight is going to be boring. No, put the best in the ring together. Well, it’s between two fighters. It’s between Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis. The only way we can find out, they got to get in the ring,” said Bradley when asked who he sees as the best fighter in the 135-lb division.
You can’t say that Shakur is among the two best in the lightweight division because he’s not looked impressive in two of the three fights since he moved up to 135 in 2023. What Shakur’s fight against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos has shown is that he’s not the fighter he was at 126 or 130.
He’s not comfortable with his opponents’ power, and his punches lack the pop to hurt them or make them back off. Surprisingly, Bradley can’t see that. Is he starting to lose his grasp, or was he never a good judge of fighters?
– William Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Keyshawn Davis
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Andy Cruz
– Floyd Schofield
– Abdullah Mason
At least four of those fighters would beat Shakur handily and should be viewed as potential rivals with Tank. Mason, Zepeda, Cruz, and Schofield would have an excellent chance of beating Shakur, even with the set of judges who worked his fight with De Los Santos last year.
Those judges were giving Shakur rounds where he was literally running, and they shouldn’t have. With the above four fighters, they would take the judges out of play against Shakur.
“I think everybody would be surprised how that fight would look. I was heavy on Shakur at one point, but his last couple of performances kind of threw me off a bit. It’s more for the technical standpoint. People think I hate on the kid because he’s not with Top Rank or with ESPN.
“That’s not necessarily true. It’s certain things he does inside the ring that Tank could take advantage of him, and there are certain things that he can take advantage of Tank in certain areas. I think it’s a closer fight than I originally thought it was going to be just upon the recent research that we’ve seen. The recent results that we’ve seen with Shakur and Tank Davis,” said Bradley.
When Shakur stood and fought his last opponent in the pocket, Artem Harutyunyan, he got hit a lot and didn’t look good in their fight on July 6th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. That fight showed that Shakur was too weak to stand his ground against fighters and would be in misery when he faces Zepeda, Tank, or some of the other hard-hitting lightweights in the division.
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