On the night of July 6th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson successfully defended his title as he beat Artem Harutyunyan (12-2, 7 KOs) by unanimous decision.
Stevenson did what many expected him to, winning by a wide margin on the scorecards. Despite his ease in winning the bout, the boxing community criticized him because they didn’t appreciate his performance.
In April 2023, Shakur Stevenson, a two-weight world champion, made his debut in the lightweight division. His first fight in his new weight class was successful, as Stevenson posted a sixth-round TKO victory over Shuichiro Yoshino.
Shakur Stevenson had trouble staying busy because Vasiliy Lomachenko, George Kambosos Jr, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz, and Frank Martin turned down the opportunity to face Stevenson inside the ring.
Due to other contenders routinely turning down the opportunity to fight Stevenson, fight fans gave him the boogeyman label. Finally, Stevenson would have an opponent to compete against when Edwin De Los Santos stepped up to the challenge.
On November 16, 2023, Shakur Stevenson stepped inside the squared circle to battle Edwin De Los Santos for the vacant WBC world lightweight title. It was a dull fight as Stevenson hesitated to engage, and De Los Santos had trouble cutting off the ring.
After the 12-round contest, Shakur Stevenson won the fight via unanimous decision. During his post-fight interview, a frustrated De Los Santos spoke on how he came to fight, but Stevenson came for a track meet.
The Stevenson-De Los Santos matchup received heavy criticism, and many in the boxing community blamed Stevenson for the fight being boring. Stevenson admitted he had a bad performance, and his promoter, Bob Arum, revealed that Shakur fought with a shoulder injury.
Shakur Stevenson would have a chance to redeem himself on the night of July 6th when he made his first title defense against Artem Harutyunyan. In the opening round, Stevenson and Harutyunyan went through the feeling-out process.
In the second round, there wasn’t much action inside the ring as Harutyunyan pressed forward and tried to be aggressive, but he could not land anything significant. The limited action continued in the third round as the fans started booing.
Shakur picked up the pace as he had a string of rounds in which he routinely landed sharp single shots and a few two-punch combinations. During rounds 6 through 9, Stevenson had a window to go for the knockout, but instead of being more aggressive, he was satisfied with just winning the rounds.
In the 11th round, some of Shakur’s hometown fans started booing while others left the arena. Stevenson was conservative on offense in the 12th as he won the round and went on to win the fight by way of unanimous decision. Shakur got the victory, but he failed to make that proverbial statement.
Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) is a highly skilled ring technician with all the tools, but unfortunately, his lack of engaging and a lack of a killer instinct are why he’s being tagged as a boring fighter.
Shakur Stevenson’s fights are classified as boring because he’s levels above his competition, and it’s easy for him to utilize the hit-but-don’t-get-hit strategy. Shakur will be involved in entertaining fights in the future when he faces an opponent who’s on his level.
When Shakur Stevenson faces an opponent with the same ring IQ and skill level, he will have no choice but to fight. It is a guarantee that Shakur will be in a highly entertaining battle the night he faces either Vasiliy Lomachenko or Gervonta “Tank” Davis.