Shakur Stevenson claims he’s being “blackballed” by certain people in boxing to try and freeze him out to prevent him from getting the opportunities for big fights he deserves.
It’s not conspiracy being done to “blackball” WBC lightweight champion Shakur. The problem is that fighters and their promoters don’t want to fight defensive fighters that move as much as Shakur.
The Unpopular Defense-First Style
Some fighters are avoided in the sport, and defensive fighters, southpaws, switch-hitters, and knockout artists are high on the list.
Stevenson doesn’t say who these people are that don’t want him to get the big fights, but he says it’s not going to work. He’ll get the matches he wants eventually.
This Saturday, Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) will defend his WBC lightweight title against Artem Hartuyunyan (13-1, 7 KOs) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Harutyunyan, 33, isn’t the fight he wanted.
Shakur says he wanted to fight one of these guys: George Kambosos Jr., Vasily Lomachenko, William Zepeda, or Gervonta Davis.
The Blackballing Myth
“I’m not looking for a knockout. If it comes, it comes. That just sounds like someone who is scared,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media, reacting to being told that Gervonta Davis said he didn’t want to fight him because he was too defensive.”
Gervonta and many other fighters don’t want to fight Shakur, not because they’re scared, but rather because he moves too much and will go out of his way not to get hit. His last fight made Shakur one of the undesirables.
Shakur isn’t a big enough puncher to go for a knockout against an experienced Olympian, Harutyunyan, who has been in with bigger punchers than him and was never stopped.
“Someone says that I’m defensive and they don’t want to get in the ring with you because you got great defense. That sounds like somebody that is scared of losing. I got Artem in front of me, and that’s my focus. On Saturday, I’ll put on a great show,” said Shakur.
How could Shakur be so wrong? Fighters like Tank don’t want to fight him because they’ll be forced to chase him, and he might not get a chance to land more than two or three shots per round. We saw that with Shakur’s last opponent, Edwin De Los Santos.
“I’m not going to say no names, but I think they’re trying to blackball me and purposefully keep me out to keep me out of the mix to give me the opportunity I deserve,” said Shakur to Deepcuts about his belief that people are intentionally freezing him out.”
Is Change the Only Solution?
If Shakur doesn’t change his fighting style, he’ll continue to be avoided, but only because his fighters don’t want to deal with a guy who moves as much as him. It won’t be due to a conspiracy to lock him out for another reason. If Shakur believes it has nothing to do with his fighting style, he’s deceiving himself.
“That’s when patience comes in. When the time is right, everything is going to happen the way it’s supposed to happen. I got to put myself in a better situation. I think July 6th is a start, and then so on. Everything should fall into play the way it should fall into play,” said Shakur.
Stevenson will probably get a chance to fight Tank Davis eventually, but that depends on how he performs and whether his fan base is growing. The tank can make more money fighting Ryan Garcia again than he can fight Shakur.
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