Shakur Stevenson, the WBC lightweight champion, will defend his title against Artem Harutyunyan on ESPN on Saturday night, but he’s already targeting a clash against Vasily Lomachenko.
Stevenson Questions Lomachenko’s Courage
Unhappy about being ignored by the popular Ukrainian talent, Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs), Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) is questioning his courage, seeing him as ducking him for fear of being beaten.
“Lomachenko looked good, but I still think he’s scared to fight me,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fight Hub TV’s YouTube channel about Lomachenko’s recent eleventh-round knockout of former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. on May 12th in Perth, Australia.
“Stop being scared, Lomachenko. I will call you duck-Chenko or scary-Chenko until you fight me, champ.”
It’s the same approach that Shakur has used to try to encourage Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to fight him, which has thus far failed to pay off.
Tank has continued to ignore Shakur, which is easy to do because he’s not popular with fans. He’s still reeling from his disastrous performance against Edwin De Los Santos on November 16th last year at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Shakur’s questioning of Lomachenko’s courage hasn’t caught on with fans, who still view him as being an outstanding fighter with an entertaining fighting style.
In contrast, fans don’t enjoy watching Shakur’s fights, and there are doubts about whether he will ever be a star in the ring.
It’s not enough for Shakur to brag about himself on social media and during interviews because that’s not going to transform him into a PPV attraction, bring in huge ratings for the network, or please the promoters who sign him to a new contract.
It doesn’t look likely that Shakur will get a fight against the former three-division world champion Lomachenko, who is in negotiations with Tank Davis for a mega-fight in November.
If Lomachenko loses to Tank, he probably won’t be interested in fighting a lesser name like Shakur for a smaller payday and must chase him around the ring for twelve rounds.
Tank has said that Shakur is one of the names he’ll be fighting on his new contract with his management, but it’s unclear when.
Shakur is in a big hurry to fight Tank and Lomachenko and is not interested in fighting talented contenders like Raymond Muratalla, William Zepeda, or Abdullah Mason. Ideally, Shakur should give Edwin De Los Santos a rematch because many felt he was given a gift decision over him last November.