Promoter Eddie Hearn believes he’s signed a probably “unbeatable” future “international star” along with his current addition of Shakur Stevenson to his Matchroom promotion.
Excessive-pressure Auditions
With Hearn over-praising Shakur, it places him in a high-pressure scenario for his October twelfth match for the promoter in opposition to former IBF tremendous featherweight champion Joe Cordina. For a fighter like Shakur, who has repeatedly turned in lackluster performances in his final three fights, Hearn is placing him in a troublesome place the place he’s bought to attempt to dwell as much as the glazing.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur has signed a two-fight take care of Hearn, which clearly means he’ll must impress to be signed to a profitable long-term deal. These two first fights will likely be auditions for Shakur, the place he’ll must act entertainingly.
Stevenson will in all probability lose one of many two fights, and Hearn will wash his palms of him, realizing that he’s not who he thought he was. He has beginner model, but it surely’s solely efficient in opposition to non-punchers.
We noticed his limitations when he fought the sluggers Edwin De Los Santos and Jeremiah Nakathila. Stevenson was pressured to run all evening in these contests and was booed loudly by the followers for his failure to face and combat.
Shakur isn’t an entertaining fighter except he’s matched in opposition to a sluggish, weaker opponent, like when he fought Jamel Herring and Shuichiro Yoshino.
Unfavorable Matchups
Joe Cordina: A gimme for Shakur’s first of his twp-fight take care of Matchroom.
William Zepeda: That is the combat the place the wheels may come off for Shakur as a result of he’s bought a fighter with a high-pressure model that he’s all the time struggled in opposition to. Shakur gained’t be capable to stand and combat Zepeda like he did his final opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, as a result of he has an excessive amount of energy and throws too many photographs. It’s attainable that Shakur will get crushed and be in the identical boat as Devin Haney.
Shakur faces Joe Cordina on October twelfth, with them preventing on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Cordina, 32, won’t do a lot to extend Shakur’s recognition, irrespective of how good he seems to be on this combat. The previous IBF tremendous featherweight champion Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) misplaced his final combat to 35-year-old Anthony Cacace by an eighth-round knockout on Could 18th.
If the thought was to match Shakur in opposition to a UK fighter from the 130-lb division, Hearn ought to have used Cacace quite than Cordina. It nonetheless wouldn’t make sense if the purpose is to show Shakur into a worldwide star,” however at the least he could be going through somebody coming off a win as a substitute of a knockout loss.
“I understand how good this child is. He could also be unbeatable. I do know he’s a pound-for-pound star,” stated Eddie Hearn to the Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel, glazing Shakur Stevenson’s potential. “There’s one thing about Shakur’s mentality that provides me confidence that he beats all people.
“I believe he’s been massively undersold and must be not solely an American famous person however a worldwide famous person,” stated Hearn about Shakur.
Hearn sees one thing in WBC light-weight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) that implies he’s getting ready to stardom and believes he can convey that out. I don’t assume he can. Shakur is just too restricted as a fighter and goes out of his method to not trade along with his opponents.
Hearn will appear like a genius if he can rework Shakur into the second coming of Floyd Mayweather Jr, but it surely doesn’t appear possible. Floyd was entertaining proper out of the gate when he turned professional. He didn’t turn out to be boring to observe till later in his profession when he bought previous and adopted the safety-first model that Shakur makes use of as we speak.
His hit-and-run model doesn’t work for constructing a “international star” or perhaps a native, nationwide one within the U.S. If Shakur have been a must-see TV, Prime Rank would have by no means let him get away. They might have paid him a goldmine to remain, however they didn’t; the reason being apparent. He’s boring, and followers don’t wish to watch him.
