Shakur Stevenson Blasts Top Rank/ESPN in Tirade, Affirms He’s Moving On

by

Shakur Stevenson didn’t do himself any favors by fighting like Shakur Stevenson Saturday night at the Prudential Center in his home town of Newark New Jersey, cruising to comfortable unanimous decision victory.

Whether one sees the reigning, undefeated WBC lightweight champion as a master stylist who fights effectively and efficiently or as a dispassionate cynical front runner with no flair, the story in Shakur’s story is the narrative hanging over his head. And that narrative is that he’s boring, unappealing, and, ultimately, undeserving of a main stage spotlight.

So, fair or not, the 27-year-old Stevenson had to do something special in what was shaping up to be his last fight with promoter Top Rank and his last on the ESPN platform. With free agency ahead and the need to excite and engage before hitting the open market, Shakur fought like Shakur– and he got blasted by media and fans.

To be fair, per Compubox, Stevenson threw five times more power punches over twelve rounds than he did in his tedious showing against Edwin De Los Santos last November (284 vs. 54) and landed nearly three times the total punches (170 vs. 65). Stats-wise, he put up numbers typical of the average Shakur Stevenson performance.

But, again, he was fighting a narrative and, unless he did something big and exceptionally out of character, he was destined to take flak.

Some might say that Top Rank bossman Bob Arum, who has a reputation for delivering unflattering matchups to outgoing contract players, had set Stevenson up for an unexceptional outing by matching him against Olympic bronze medalist Artem Harutyunyan.

The 33-year-old Armenia-born German resident is fundamentally sound, sturdy, a bit awkward, and conservative in the fact that he makes few exploitable mistakes. He wasn’t the kind of opponent who’d give Shakur any openings with which to be explosive or entertaining.

And, predictably, Shakur fought like Shakur, took what was there and went the distance for the comfortable win.

ESPN showed that they were out of the Shakur Stevenson business by cutting to Stevenson’s hometown fans leaving for the exists before the last round of the contest. It was a conscious shot fired that would not have been green-lit if Shakur had accepted the 5-fight, $15 million deal reportedly offered to him to re-sign with Top Rank.

Stevenson, who is chronically incapable of reading rooms, blamed Harutyunyan in his post-fight interview for the booing from the audience, claiming fans were upset with his unwillingness to engage.

He then went on social media to declare that he was done with Top Rank and was moving on to free agency, as most expected.

He would also take aim at ESPN, claiming that the network was out to get him by under-reporting the live attendance numbers and even paying fans to walk out as the cameras rolled.

Shakur would continue with this line of thought throughout the weekend, even having dust-ups with fellow fighters/ex-fighters Ryan Garcia, Frank Martin, Ishe Smith and Marcus Browne, as he established his own narrative on social media.

As we head into this new week and as Shakur heads into free agency, he has painted a portrait of himself as the most hated (and avoided) man in boxing. He even teased fans a bit with a photo of him on a video call with Hall of Fame legend and promoter Floyd Mayweather.

Now, Stevenson will get to find out which narrative has stuck when it comes to his bankability and his main stage worth.

Youtube video

 



Last Updated on 07/08/2024