Matchroom promoter aims to elevate WBC lightweight champion through shrewd matchmaking and calculated career moves.
Matchroom promoter aims to elevate WBC lightweight champion through shrewd matchmaking and calculated career moves.
Shakur Stevenson may be “unbeatable,” according to Eddie Hearn. The WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) is eager to join the Matchroom promoter’s stable so he can use his matchmaking skills to make him a star.
If Hearn can work out a deal to sign Shakur, he hasn’t stated with whom he wants to start arranging fights. However, Andy Cruz, the 2020 Olympic gold medallist, is in Shakur’s stable at 135 and is expected to defeat him. Shakur isn’t imagining facing that kind of opposition, and they wouldn’t want to lose the first round of a non-PPV match.
“Shakur Stevenson may be unbeatable. Shakur is brilliant. Sometimes, his style is not all-out aggressive, Arturo Gatti, but guess what? He’s winning these fights, fighting them the way he wants to fight,” said Eddie Hearn to Secondsout.
Shakur hits bigger and harder at 135 than he did at 126 and 130, therefore his fighting strategy is safety first. Ivan Shakur was bigger than his opponents in those weight classes, thus he could take their punches and occasionally finish them out.
Shakur can’t afford to fight these fighters aggressively at 135 because they punch him too hard and would knock him out. He is compelled to box more than he ever did in the other weight classes since he is a fish out of sea at lightweight.
“I think when you see him fight Tank, maybe even Zepeda, you’re going to see the best Shakur Stevenson,” Hearn said. “I know I can make him a star because that’s easy for me.”
Hearn likely won’t attempt to match Shakur against #1 William Zepeda until after he puts him in the money fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Once that fight is out of the way and Shakur likely soundly beaten, Hearn might pull the trigger on the Zepeda. I doubt it, though. Hearn will need to rebuild Shakur as he did with Anthony Joshua after his second defeat against Oleksandr Usyk. He’ll match Shakur against three or four stiffs, build his confidence, create fake hype, and then push for a rematch with Tank Davis. In other words, it’s rinse and repeat. It’s just business
