Shakur Stevenson Credits Terence Crawford for the Fighter he is Today
Among boxing fans, there is no question that WBO and WBC super featherweight champion “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (18-0, 9 KO’s) is one of this generation’s standout talents. The New Jersey native captured the silver medal in the 2016 Olympic Games as an amateur and is already a two-division and unified champion as a professional. Currently he is coming off an extremely personally satisfying unanimous decision win over longtime rival Oscar Valdez. With his tremendous momentum, he is the favorite to best his next opponent, Robson Conceicao, on September 23.
Clearly, Stevenson has long been a shining star in the sport. Unsurprisingly, Fearless recognized his own ability and began thinking of himself as the cream of the crop since his amateur days. However, as he explained on the Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer, a critical and influential run-in with WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (38-0, 29 KO’s) alerted him to the fact he still had a long way to go!
“When I was, I want to say seventeen…I go pull up on him. And when I pull up on him, he in there about to spar. So I was like, ‘yo, you going to give me some rounds?!’ I was talking so crazy! And this was one of the one times that I had to actually learn that I am not the best! So I get in the ring and this dude got to beating me up, like we only sparred two or three rounds, it was four minute rounds. Man this dude beat me up so bad! I swear to God that was the worst ass whooping I ever had as a fighter!”
IRON SHARPENS IRON
Yet, as the old adage goes, ‘pressure will either bust pipes or forge diamonds,’ and obviously Stevenson absorbed his thumping as motivation.
“I feel like from that sparring session and just being around Bud Crawford, he is a major reason of why I am who I am. He actually let me know it was levels and I had to step my game up. Even though I was seventeen at the time, I was a hell of a seventeen year old. I used to win every tournament, I wasn’t like a normal seventeen year old but I just knew at that point in time, like it’s time to get better than what I am, get stronger, get better.”
“The next time I get in the ring with this guy, I want to be able to do something with him. He can’t just beat me up like that. So, at that time I appreciate that dude for that, he is one of the dudes, I could say, that made me into who I am today.”
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By: Bakari Simpson
