Shakur Stevenson shall be taking his probabilities of getting an enormous mega-million provide on the free agent market after turning down an enormous $15 million contract extension from his promoters at High Rank.
Bob Arum’s High Rank was providing WBC light-weight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) a deal that will have required a minimal of $3 million per struggle, which apparently wasn’t sufficient for him to just accept.
Potential Suitors and Unsure Future
Shakur’s choices are believed to be between Matchroom, PBC, and Mayweather Promotions. None of them can assure success together with his future, as he’s not seemed good since his win over Shuichiro Yoshino in April 2023.
Whoever indicators Shakur as a free agent will doubtless must prime the $15 million that High Rank was providing to increase his contract with them, and he may not be price it.
He doesn’t entertain the followers, and his final two fights towards De Lo Santos and Harutyunyan confirmed he couldn’t beat Gervonta Davis or Vasily Lomachenko and not using a controversial resolution. These fighters are too well-liked for them to be handled in the identical method De Los Santos in his controversial loss to Shakur final November.
A promotional firm ought to solely signal Shakur as a free agent if it’s a one-fight deal, and even then, provided that they’ve a giant struggle obtainable towards a killer like Gervonta Davis, Vasily Lomachenko, William Zepeda, or Andy Cruz. Signing Shakur to a long-term deal could be a nasty threat and never price any cash.
Shakur Not Designed for Light-weight
There’s a rising perception that Shakur isn’t minimize out for the light-weight division and could be higher off coming back from whence he got here at 130 or 126. The paydays are smaller in these divisions, however that’s the place Shakur has his greatest probability of trying good on account of his measurement benefit.
Stevenson is much like Adrien Broner, who wasn’t the identical fighter when he moved up from 130 to 147. It’s the identical factor. Shakur’s punches have little pop, forcing him to maneuver across the ring to win his fights.
Final Saturday, Shakur broke the mildew aggressively towards the light-hitting Artem Harutyunyan and received a twelve-round unanimous resolution on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey. Nevertheless, Shakur may struggle like that due to Harutyunyan’s lack of punching energy and hand velocity. He had the best opponent for him to face and commerce, but he nonetheless couldn’t put a dent on this man.
Gervonta Davis’ assistant coach, Kenny Ellis, commented about Shakur’s lack of ability to knock out Harutyunyan. He feels Abdullah Mason would have knocked Harutyunyan out. He’s solely 20 years previous and was combating on the undercard final Saturday regardless of having proven extra means to be a crowd-pleaser and a real star.
