Turki Alalshikh's comments weighed heavy on the WBC lightweight champ's mind during his latest title defense.
Shakur Stevenson put on the most exciting performance of his illustrious pro career this past Saturday when he defeated Mexico's previously unbeaten William Zepeda at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
He held his feet, he landed the harder punches, and he threw in combinations — yes, we're still talking about Stevenson. The showing was certainly out of character for the WBC lightweight champion compared to his recent bouts. Still, it was a welcome change for even the boxing purists who were growing tired of watching the very talented Stevenson dominate low-output, action-drought contests.
Although the display entertained fans, Stevenson chose to be more critical of his work, awarding himself a B grade on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show."
"I got hit more than I wanted to, but I put on a performance that the fans liked," Stevenson said. "I fought for the fans, I did what the fans wanted. A lot of people didn't expect that because I've been telling y'all all week that I'm going to fight for myself. I kind of went against what I [said]."
Saudi Arabian boxing financier Turki Alalshikh has voiced his disappointment in recent months with what he calls "Tom and Jerry fights" — where one boxer chases the other around the ring. Alalshikh's Riyadh Season and Ring Magazine ventures staged back-to-back cards in early May, which smashed long-held boxing records — though not the kind of records they were hoping to break. The two cards featured three fights which now sit in the top five of all time for fewest punches thrown in a 12-round bout.
After the disappointing events, Alalshikh announced that he would no longer support fighters who fought with unexciting styles and even publicly goaded boxers like Stevenson to do a better job of entertaining the fans. Stevenson admitted to Uncrowned that Alalshikh's comments had a direct impact on his performance.
"[Zepeda] was tough, but still, at the same time, I could have moved," Stevenson said. "I could have started off the fight using a lot of lateral movement, [moving] all around the ring, but then [I would've gotten] 'Tom and Jerry' [criticism].
"[The 'Tom and Jerry' conversation] was on my mind. Yeah, it kind of got to me. I'm a competitor. I'm so competitive to [the point] where I do hear stuff, and I do kind of [want] to shut the critics up. I want to shut people up and give them something real to talk about. Also, I want people to know I can fight too. I'm not just a boxer. I've been boxing my whole life. I'm a fighter, a boxer, I can do it all. Whatever I choose to do that night is what I'm going to do."
Now a promotional free agent following the end of his two-fight pact with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, Stevenson is firmly on the hunt for a big fight.
News broke this past week that Gervonta "Tank" Davis was arrested for a domestic violence offense against his ex-girlfriend after he allegedly hit her on the back of her head and slapped her during an altercation that took place in June.
Davis had been heavily linked to a rematch with WBA super featherweight champion Lamont Roach on Aug. 16, but with that date being just one month away, it seems unlikely that the second fight between the pair will take place as expected. Roach could be forced to explore other options for his next fight, and one man who would welcome a fight with Roach is Stevenson.
"If the fight is off, I would love to fight either one of [Davis or Roach], for sure," Stevenson said.
"Yes [I'd fight Roach]. I keep telling people this. I'm cool with Lamont Roach, me and him are real cool, but I'd love to fight him. Me and him makes so much sense [skill wise], I think he's one of the [most] skillful fighters at 135 pounds alongside myself, and I think we'd make for a tremendous fight."
Although Stevenson vs. Roach would be a compelling matchup, it won't be able to replace the glamour behind a long-sought-after lightweight unification clash between Stevenson and Davis.
"Yes [I think it happens], for sure," Stevenson said of a potential Davis fight. "I think it could be [my next fight]. I don't put it past him. Whenever he picks up the phone and says, 'Yo, let's make this fight happen,' it's going to happen.
"I think the main step is one of us [has] to find a way to reach out and try to get the fight to happen," Stevenson continued. "It can't be no little kid s***, it can't be no back and forth. We've got to be grown men and get the fight done, that's how I feel. I would love to talk to him and have a real conversation and make this fight happen. But some guys [are] kind of [egotistical], so I don't know where his ego is at.
"This is the biggest fight in the world. This is the biggest fight in the sport of boxing. Everybody wants to see this — casuals, non-casuals, boxing fans. Everybody wants to see this fight."
Stevenson is hoping to follow from the example set by his friend Terence Crawford, not just in making a mega all-American bout, but with how the fight materializes.
Famously, long-stalled negotiations between Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. made significant progress when the pair spoke directly on the phone in May 2023. Crawford and Spence ended up fighting in July of that same year for the undisputed welterweight title.
Stevenson believes that contact needs to be made directly between himself and Davis before a highly anticipated unification fight between the pair can come to fruition.
In the absence of a major bout at 135 pounds, Stevenson has welcomed the idea of moving up to 147 pounds for a fight with British star Conor Benn, who fell narrowly short in his Event of the Year front-runner with Chris Eubank Jr. at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London this past April.
Although Stevenson has found his weight class at lightweight, the three-division champion believes that the talent gap is vast between himself and Benn — similar to what Benn believed when moving up two weights to fight Eubank Jr. — and so Stevenson thinks that he could move up 12 pounds for a Benn fight and still emerge victorious.
"Conor Benn, he be talking but he knows I'm he truth," Stevenson said. "He can sit there and say, 'Run this, do that.' He knows deep down inside, I'm the truth.
"I would love to go to London and fight him in front of his fans."
Category: General Sports
