Perfectly calibrated melancholy. Shakur won again, but disappointed the public.
Alexander Frolov July 7, 2024, 07:40 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Stevenson outpointed Harutyunyan without any extra effort.
Despite the summer break, boxing is not going anywhere. This weekend, a tournament for classical martial arts was held in Newark, in the main fight of which lightweights competed: undefeated American Shakur Stevenson defended his WBC title against the Armenian-German challenger Artyom Harutyunyan. Stevenson was considered the clear favorite, but his opponent should not be discounted either: Harutyunyan could boast of solid experience and a strong punch.
However, on paper, Stevenson still had many more trump cards. An incredible level of defensive skills, a rich arsenal of not the cleanest tricks, and the highest combat intelligence make Shakur the most inconvenient boxer. Yes, the American is far from the most dangerous knockout artist, but this is not necessary to achieve confident victories according to the judges’ decisions. By the way, almost all experts again expected a not particularly spectacular fight, although Stevenson himself promised to put on a real show.
The fight started slowly. Harutyunyan captured the center of the ring and threw single punches, while his opponent carefully worked on defense near the ropes, while simultaneously looking for gaps in the German-Armenian’s defense. And little by little Shakur still found ways to his opponent’s head and body, although he did not come to really dangerous situations. The first rounds turned out to be rather boring in general: the boxers were cautious and tried to work more on their feet. However, one should not have expected a different style from the champion, but why Artyom did not show much aggression and only tried to outplay the technical Shakur is a question.
Shakur doesn’t get the recognition he deserves:
“A great boxer with little commercial value.” What’s wrong with Stevenson?
Harutyunyan did not take any obvious risks and most of his attacks flew past the champion or were blocked. Stevenson’s accuracy in the seventh round was almost doubled, although he threw slightly fewer punches. Gradually, the challenger grew tired and pressed himself against the ropes, and the stands hummed in displeasure, demanding to show at least something brilliant. Which was not in the interest of Shakur, who calmly continued to win points in the eyes of the judges and slow down his opponent with body shots. Gradually, the spectators began to leave; not all of them watched the last two rounds.
Those who left, by the way, did not really lose anything: the fight did not gain any powerful momentum even at the end. Harutyunyan did not have enough strength and skills to try to turn the tide of the fight, but Stevenson was happy with everything. All three judges gave the victory to Shakur: 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112, and now we are waiting for Stevenson to face Tank Davis. Maybe at least then it will be interesting?
