Shakur Stevenson says he expects his opponent Artem Harutyunyan to “start running” from him when he begins punishing him in their headliner fight on ESPN this Saturday, July 6th, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Stevenson’s Prediction: A Case of Projection?
WBC lightweight champion Stevenson’s prediction that Harutyunyan (13-1, 7 KOs) will run from him is a classic example of him projecting his inside-the-ring actions onto his opponent to distance himself from facing the bitter truth.
Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) needs to stop moving and focus on fighting because he must look good in this last fight under his contract with Top Rank. He’ll become a free agent after his fight with Harutyunyan.
If Stevenson wants to get a sweet multi-million contract with another promotional, he’s got to stand in the center of the ring and go to war with Harutyunyan without using his typical hit-and-run style. If you’re one of the big promoters, you don’t want to sign a cancer, and you can’t get top fighters to want to face him.
Top Rank probably thought when they signed Shakur that his performance in his losing effort in the 2016 Olympic finals against Robeisy Ramirez was just a fluke thing and that he would become an entertaining fighter as a pro.
That hasn’t happened. Shakur’s fighting style has not changed since his amateur days, and now Top Rank’s experiment with him ends on Saturday.
“It depends on how tough he is and how much punishment he can take. I know he’s going to start running, and then I got to cut the ring,” said Shakur Stevenson to Top Rank Boxing, talking about Artem Harutyunyan.
“This dude is a good fighter. I think a lot of the public don’t know him. So they think how good he is. Right now, I think the mode that I’m in and what I’ve got going on in my brain, I want to come in and put punishment on him,” said Shakur about Harutyunyan.
“It may start out as a boxing match, and then I may start beating the s*** out of him. Understand, we’re going the job done by any means. In round six or seven, he’s going to start moving all around. I’ve got to cut the ring off a little bit,” said Shakur.
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