Is Stevenson A Boxing Milli Vanilli? Padley Fight, Tank Dream

Shakur Stevenson is proud of his performance last Saturday night, stopping Josh Padley in the ninth round in a successful defense of his WBC lightweight title at The Venue in Riyadh.

Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) boasts that he displayed the “art of hit and don’t get hit” in his victory over Padley (15-1, 4 KOs), who was selected by his promoter, Eddie Hearn, as the replacement for the ill Floyd Schofield.

Tank Fight Still a Dream

It wasn’t the impressive performance that the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Stevenson needed to impress the fans or to make a case for him deserving a fight against Gervonta Davis next. For that low-level opponent, Shakur needed a first-round knockout because Padley wasn’t world-class. Stevenson’s popularity didn’t increase with that performance.

It was more of a step backward for Shakur, who fought like he could not fight in a higher gear. He stood straight up, threw arm punches, and darted away when attacked. It was very timid stuff and not interesting to watch. Turki Alalshikh should have placed the Shakur-Padley fight at the start of Saturday’s event with the Mohammed Alakel vs. Engel Gomez and Ziyad Almaayouf vs. Jonatas Rodrigo Gomes de Oliveira fights.

After the fight, Shakur and Hearn both called out WBA lightweight champion Tank, wanting him next for a unification fight. Both claimed that a Tank-Stevenson unification is the “Biggest fight in boxing.” They both know obviously that it wasn’t near a good enough performance against the weakest fighter that could be found to lure Tank Davis into a fight.

A Manufactured Fighter?

If Hearn isn’t willing to match Shakur against good fighters for fear he’ll lose, he deserves to be ignored by Tank. If a slick promoter protects a fighter, as we see with Stevenson, they don’t rate sharing the ring. Right now, Shakur looks like a typical manufactured fighter, protected by his promoters with the sole object of getting one big money fight and then discarded as worthless junk after he loses. In other words, Stevenson is a fake Milli Vanilli-like creation.

Hearn needs to match Shakur against these fighters to show that he’s for real:

1. Abdullah Mason
2. Andy Cruz
3. Ernesto Mercado
4. Raymond Muratalla
5. William Zepeda

“It was a tremendous performance. I showed the art of hit and don’t get hit,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media after his ninth-round TKO win over ham and egger Josh Padley last Saturday night in Riyadh. “I really didn’t get touched like that, but I put the hands on him.

“Respect Josh Padley for stepping up and doing what a lot of people don’t want to do. A lot of people don’t want to get in the ring with me. So, I appreciate him,” Shakur continued. “The reason they don’t want to get in the ring with me is because I understand ‘hit and don’t get hit.’

“I love it,” said Shakur when asked about his reaction to being booed by fans. “Josh Padley is six hours away in London. So, he probably has more fans here than me, but I shut them up. They stopped talking, and got quiet and I did what I was supposed to do.”

Many fighters would have been willing to fight Shakur, but the money was never there to fight him. He’s a southpaw with an ugly defensive style, which involves running. His fights are booed, and there’s never been a reason for any top-level fighter to want to face that kind of guy. If Turki Alalshikh wants to lure Tank Davis with gazillions or one of the other talented fighters like Andy Cruz, he can do it, but the jig will be up for Shakur. He’s not going to beat either of those fighters and will likely look bad in losing.