WBO light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) and #8 Artem Harutyunyan will meet reside on ESPN on July sixth on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey.
This can be a disappointing selection for Shakur, however many consider the Twitter star is allergic to threat, which is common for him.
Shakur bragged not too long ago about how he needed to combat a high-level opponent, however as an alternative, he rejected the damaging Raymond Muratalla, the #2 contender, in favor of Harutyunyan.
Just lately crushed 33-year-old Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) had been rumored to be one of many two fringe contenders the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur could be dealing with, however now it’s out within the open.
Mike Coppinger broke the information of the Stevenson vs. Harutyunyan combat being finalized for July sixth.
Harutyunyan gave Frank Martin all he may deal with final July in a 12-round unanimous determination in a contest he’d been profitable by means of the primary half of the motion.
He nearly had the unproven Martin beat, making him appear like an unskilled, musclebound oaf earlier than operating out of petrol within the seventh. Harutyunyan has glorious technical expertise, however his cardio is solely terrible.
If Harutyunyan had higher conditioning, he would have received the combat, and made it look straightforward as a result of he was ranges above Martin early on when he was at full power.
Given Shakur’s final combat towards Edwin De Los Santos in November of final yr, he has a lot to show to followers. Shakur ran from De Los Santos all the combat, displaying no willingness to combine it with highly effective punches and simply doing absolutely the minimal to win a choice.
The Way forward for Boredom?
After the competition, Shakur and his promoters at Prime Rank blamed his efficiency on a few accidents. Nonetheless, he’d fought the identical approach in 4 of his fights, and there weren’t any damage excuses after these bouts.
This would be the 26-year-old Shakur’s remaining combat on his contract with Prime Rank, and it’s anticipated that he’ll stroll, searching for one other promoter to hook up that can provide him the fights he needs.
Shakur has designs of combating these 4 at light-weight:
Gervonta Davis
Emanuel Navarrete
Vasily Lomachenko
William Zepeda
Signing with PBC possible received’t assist Shakur get a combat towards Tank Davis as a result of they will’t twice the arm of the Baltimore native to combat him, provided that he’s proven no real interest in that match-up.
Arum’s Change of Coronary heart?
If Prime Rank re-signs Shakur, they’re going to have to search out out what to do with him as a result of he’s didn’t turn into the star that they’d hoped he could be after they signed him following the 2016 Olympics.
Shakur’s boring, safety-first fashion of combating is one which Prime Rank promoter Bob Arum used to rail about when he used to promoter two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux a decade in the past. Nonetheless, Rigondeaux was much more entertaining to observe than Shakur, and it makes one marvel if Arum has turn into extra affected person with non-entertaining fighters.
Broadcast Info:
- ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT
- UK Time: 2 a.m. BST (July 7)
Full Battle Card:
- Primary Occasion: Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan (WBC Light-weight Title)
- Co-Function: O’Shaquie Foster vs. Robson Conceição (WBC Junior Light-weight Title)
- Televised Opener: Keyshawn Davis vs. Miguel Madueño (10-Spherical Light-weight)
- Abdullah Mason vs. Luis Lebron (8-Spherical Light-weight)
- Damian Knyba vs. Richard Lartey (8-Spherical Heavyweight)
