Former Shakur Stevenson’s opponent, Oscar Valdez, praised his aggressive effort to go for a knockout of Artem Harutyunyan last Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The former two-division world champion Valdez says he thought WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) would score a stoppage of Harutyunyan (13-2, 7 KOs) in the sixth round when he was landing well, but he couldn’t do it.
Stevenson was walking forward, throwing arm punches, not bending his knees, and failing to generate significant power. That made it easy for Harutyunyan to take the punches well and move out of range.
When Shakur came at him, Harutyunyan could fight him off with combinations, which put the New Jersey native into the defensive mode. Whatever momentum that Shakur had would be lost from the brief salvos that Harutyunyan was throwing.
Stevenson’s corner argued with him in between rounds in the second half, wanting him to put more pressure on, but couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. They might as well have been asking a Tiger to change its stripes.
Shakur’s style was too ingrained to relentlessly attack how he would have needed to KO the 33-year-old Harutyunyan, who was tailor-made for him.
Valdez’s Respect for Shakur’s Knockout Attempt
“You got to respect Shakur for trying to get the knockout. Who would have thought that the guy that was running was Harutyunyan? They thought Shakur was going to run,” said Oscar Valdez to Fight Hub TV, giving support to his former conquer Shakur Stevenson from his win last Saturday night against Artem Harutyunyan.
Shakur tried, but the approach that he used was never going to work against an experienced Olympian like Harutyunyan, who has faced real knockout punchers in the amateurs and dealt with them without getting KO’d.
It was easy for Harutyunyan to handle Shakur’s limited offensive skills. That’s not Shakur’s strong point in his game. He’s strictly a defensive fighter who still uses the amateur point-scoring style.
“I seen Shakur’s eyes where there was a time where he looked at Christina Poncher and myself and said, ‘I’m going to knock him out’ in the sixth round. I actually thought he was going to get it, but there are certain fighters you’re not going got knock out,” said Valdez.
When Shakur found some success in round six, Harutyunyan got on his bike and quickly neutralized his offense. It was too easy. Shakur’s ability to cut off the ring proved to be limited, and that’s the weird part because he’s such a good mover when attacked.
Unfortunately, his ability to go forward to attack is at a rudimentary level, and that’s one of the reasons why he’ll never be a complete fighter.
“Harutyunyan is a tough fighter. Don’t underestimate the guy. Shakur might make him look easy, but he’s not an easy opponent,” said Valdez. “Styles make fights, and it just wasn’t a good dancing partner for Shakur. But then again, a lot of times, Shakur doesn’t get that good dancing partner. ”
Shakur didn’t make it look easy against Harutyunyan. That was a tough fight where Shakur appeared to lose four rounds. He didn’t dominate the way some fighters would have at lightweight.
This is the fourth or fifth fighter that Shakur has fought during his career that wasn’t a “good dancing partner,” it seems like the only time someone is a good one is when they’re limited guys with no power, speed, or boxing ability.
“Maybe I was a good dancing partner because I attacked him the whole time, and he counter-punched me the whole night and won a clear fight. That’s why it made it somewhat entertaining,” said Valdez.
Shakur had the size advantage over Valdez, and he was fighting him after he’d already started showing signs of slippage. Valdez was coming off a controversial twelve-round unanimous decision win over Robson Conceicao in his previous fight on September 10, 2021, and many boxing fans felt that he lost that fight.
“That’s why you got to give a lot of respect to Shakur; he tried his best to give the fans and his people a knockout. He tried, but he didn’t get it. That’s boxing. He got the victory,” said Valdez.
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