Is Shakur Stevenson Hinting At his Plans for Artem Harutyunyan?
As the last days before his July 6 prizefight against Artem Harutyunyan dwindle away, WBC lightweight champion “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KO’s) finds himself still taking flak from boxing fans. This antagonism stems from what many believe was a lackluster outing versus Edwin De Los Santos. In that duel, the common perception was that Stevenson did far too much excessive running than actual fighting.
Stevenson has always defended himself by saying, one: he was injured and, two: he still easily outboxed De Los Santos despite his handicap. Now, in a recent Q&A with Sean Zittel, Fearless provided more insight into why he handled himself the way that he did that night.
“With being like a complete fighter, you need to be able to do different things in the ring and sometimes it’s not the best thing to sit in the pocket with someone who is a puncher . . . With certain punchers, like Edwin De Los Santos, if I got one hand in that mothafucka, and he is a good fighter, what am I doing sitting in the pocket with him?”
“You get tricked out of your position trying to be macho man or a tough guy and honestly I feel as though people just don’t know boxing. At the end of the day, I can fight any style that I want . . . Nowadays, when fighters move, they call it running because we have casuals who don’t know nothing about boxing ruling the sport of boxing . . . Fuck what they think! Fuck they opinions! I don’t give a fuck, I really don’t give a fuck no more!”
FINICKY FANS OR GENUINE GRIPES?
For the better part of it, Stevenson made a number of valid points about how a fighter should logically handle himself in the ring. Especially when dealing with a dangerously capable foe. At the same time, in his own particular case, he did himself few favors. For example, instead of simply rematching De Los Santos to solidify his claims of superiority over him, he scoffed at the notion.
Furthermore, rather than immediately stating he had a hand injury and showing proof of it, in the immediate aftermath of his prizefight he merely alluded to not being 100% and remained extremely coy about what that meant. It actually took some time for him to mention his hand, specifically.
These elements combined have given fans legitimate reasons to complain about the performance.
“I feel like what I already knew: if you have a high boxing IQ, you got a smart brain in the sport of boxing, why not use the brain that you got?”
Now, in his upcoming duel versus Harutyunyan, Fearless will have his first opportunity to begin winning the fans back over. Though, if he submits another substandard performance, the ridicule and shunning that he’s received will certainly only intensify. For this reason, if nothing else, his July 6 prizefight is very important indeed!
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