On the night of July 6-7, a professional boxing evening will take place in the United States. The main event of the evening will be the lightweight title fight, in which WBC world champion Shakur Stevenson will defend his title against Artyom Harutyunyan.
Shakur Stevenson is an undefeated American wrestler who is one of the top potential stars at lightweight. Even before his professional career, Stevenson shined in the amateurs, where he won the Youth Olympic Games and also won silver at the Rio Olympics.
Everything was going well for Shakur in his professional career. He started in the featherweight division, where in a year and a half he had nine fights, won all of them, won several local titles and finally achieved the world title. True, he did not defend it, but he moved up to the second featherweight. In the third fight in the new weight class, Shakur defeated Jeremiah Nakatila and became the interim world champion, and in the next fight he finished Jamel Herring and became the absolute champion. Stevenson’s most important fight to date was against Mexican Oscar Valdez with a record of 30-0. The fight was a unification fight, Stevenson won a crushing victory by decision and took two championship belts.
In the second featherweight division, Shakur also did not stay long: after defeating Valdez, Stevenson defeated Robson Conceicao, however, he was stripped of his belts for not meeting the weight class limit and moved to lightweight. In a new category for him, Stevenson knocked out Suichiro Yoshino, and then won the vacant WBC title by defeating Edwin De Los Santos. And now he will defend this title in a duel against Artyom Harutyunyan.
Despite the abundance of titles in various weight classes, Shakur’s professional career is not progressing as the young boxer would like. Stevenson even considered retiring.
“I am officially retiring from boxing. I will be in the gym forever, honing my craft and helping the next generation become great and pursue their dreams, but I am no longer a professional athlete,” Stevenson once wrote.
Stevenson was on the verge of retiring:
Is it boxing or ballet? Star Shakur decided to end his career due to resentment
You can understand Stevenson: he wants big fights that will help him become a true superstar of modern boxing. Yet, despite a perfect record and a long amateur career, Shakur is still considered a prospect, not a star boxer. In his class are Gervonta Davis and Vasily Lomachenko, who both possess championship belts and a fight that would give Stevenson that same fame. But instead, he is forced to defend the title against the WBC’s No. 7 ranked fighter, Artyom Harutyunyan.
Of course, Shakur is not happy about this situation. Stevenson sees the problem with his promoter Bob Arum and has no qualms about speaking about it publicly.
“I can find the best place for myself when I become a free agent. Everybody knows that Gervonta Davis and I could be the biggest fight possible and every promoter wants to be a part of it. Bob Arum tells me, ‘Top Rank or nothing,’” Shakur said.
But Bob Arum has his own take on the situation. The well-known promoter believes that Stevenson is not getting high-profile fights due to a lack of popularity in the boxing community.
“Shakur is a great fighter, but with little commercial value. When you try to get an A-level fighter to fight him, he says, ‘Why? It won’t be easy for me to beat him, and if I do, what will it bring?’ That’s the problem with boxing,” Bob Arum said.
In a way, Arum’s logic can be traced. Indeed, Stevenson is not as popular as, say, Davis and Lomachenko. Shakur does not have a multitude of fans, like, say, Davis, who would buy tickets and paid broadcasts for all his fights. Shakur himself is not particularly hyped in the media, like Ryan Garcia himself, who took fights with both Davis; and Haney. And Stevenson’s style does not play in his favor: yes, he wins, but he does not do it as brilliantly as Davis. Shakur has only two early wins in his last seven fights, and those, to put it mildly, were not over the most stellar opponents.
Two years ago, Shakur was nearly killed in a shooting:
Just inches away from a bullet! American boxing star nearly dies in shooting
On the other hand, Shakur does what a boxer should do: win. He is a world champion in three weight classes, an achievement that is unlikely to be achieved by an average boxer. Stevenson certainly has talent, but he lacks high-profile wins over serious opponents. And no matter what Bob Arum says, the job of putting on the fights falls to the promoter.
Now Stevenson will have to defend his belt against Artem Harutyunyan. Yes, the signal is not the loudest, but Shakur needs to keep winning and strengthening his position. Perhaps by the end of the year he will get his long-awaited high-profile fight. The fact is that a fight between Gervonta Davis and Vasily Lomachenko is planned, and Bob Arum said that he will do everything possible to ensure that Stevenson fights the winner of this fight. To do this, Shakur needs to keep his belt next weekend, and with it the coveted “zero” in the loss column, which raises the price of any boxer.
