The video of the second Shakur Stevenson injured his proper hand was launched, and it reveals him throwing a harmless-looking punch to the physique of his sparring companion earlier than falling to the ground in agony after it landed.
Is that this a pre-existing harm?
The video raises many questions on whether or not Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) had been coping with harm issues together with his proper hand lengthy earlier than this week’s episode. Shakur gave the impression to be carrying giant 16-oz gloves through the sparring, and the punch he threw, as mild because it was, shouldn’t have resulted in an harm. What this might point out is Shakur is already having issues with that hand.
We all know that Shakur excused a hand harm for his efficiency towards Edwin De Los Santos final November. This means that Shakur has brittle arms and will have additional issues that would restrict his effectiveness towards the gifted fighters within the light-weight division.
Shakur’s overly defensive type since transferring as much as the 135-lb division final yr could possibly be a direct results of his arms being too brittle to compete on this weight class.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur, 27, has probably found that he’s not bodily able to producing the facility wanted to compete with the damaging top-rung fighters within the light-weight division. His fragile arms can’t maintain up on this weight class at 135 with out falling aside.
That’s unhealthy for Shakur and disastrous for promoter Eddie Hearn, who just lately signed him to a two-fight cope with his Matchroom firm. Hearn has appeared like a gleeful schoolboy, speaking about turning Shakur right into a “International famous person” and questioning why his earlier promoters couldn’t make him a family identify.
Shakur’s harm this week was a impolite awakening for Hearn, and it places his profession in query. Weak arms at 135 translate to pure hassle for Shakur if he follows Hearn’s imaginative and prescient of him combating William Zepeda in early 2025 and Gervonta Davis in the summertime. These two would stroll by the weak punches from Shakur to knock him out rapidly.
It’s good for Hearn that he solely signed Shakur to a two-fight deal as a result of he wouldn’t have to fret about dropping cash in his fights if he’d inked a long-term cope with Matchroom.
Shakur gained’t go far within the light-weight division with glass-like arms as a result of he’s not Floyd Mayweather Jr, and he can’t get by with cherry-picking delicate opposition for him to get the simple paydays. To earn money at 135, Shakur should face the damaging guys, and he can’t beat them together with his brittle arms.
He virtually misplaced to Edwin De Los Santos final November. Should you return and watch that struggle, one could make a case for De Los Santos being robbed. That man is nowhere close to as gifted as Tank Davis and Zepeda.
