IGNORING his undoubted ability for a second, there’s a starvation and drive to Shakur Stevenson which separates him from a lot of the different gifted younger Americans we’ve got seen threaten to take the boxing world by storm solely to ultimately relaxation on their laurels and cruise into retirement.
Not content material with profitable only one title in a single weight class, Stevenson is the form to get his enterprise finished after which transfer on. In brief, he doesn’t like to stay round. Far extra interesting to him, it will seem, is the thought of chasing challenges and discovering himself in huge, profitable, and compelling fights.
His combat this Saturday (April 8) in opposition to Shuichiro Yoshino might not fall into that bracket, however, definitely, provided that it’s Stevenson’s first combat as a light-weight, it may be thought-about an introduction to one thing higher.
For the 25-year-old, having received titles as a featherweight and super-featherweight, is now trying to do the similar at 135 kilos, which suggests in fact he has set himself on a collision course with the likes of Devin Haney, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Gervonta Davis, and Ryan Garcia. To combat any of these males would symbolize a giant deal for Stevenson and certainly would symbolize the form of alternative required to show a top quality prospect with titles to his title into a giant star in America.
That, one suspects, is the eventual purpose for Stevenson at light-weight, but first he should preserve his unbeaten document – at present at 19-0 (9) – intact in opposition to Yoshino, a Japanese fighter who can be unbeaten at 16-0 (12).
A professional since 2015, the 31-year-old Yoshino has fought completely in his homeland and is a pure light-weight. In that weight class he has received a wide range of regional titles however has by no means crushed anybody on the stage of Stevenson. His greatest wins to this point, in reality, had been most likely his final two: an eleventh spherical technical determination win over Masayuki Ito in April final yr, which he adopted in November with a sixth-round stoppage of Masayoshi Nakatani, somebody we’ve got seen share a hoop with Vasyl Lomachenko, who stopped him in 9 rounds, and Felix Verdejo, whom Nakatani stopped in 9 rounds in 2020. Those had been strong scalps for Yoshino and collectively they’ve served to place him in line for a shot at the WBC light-weight title, which, he understands, will probably be his ought to he upset Stevenson in Newark, New Jersey this weekend.
The WBC had beforehand ordered an eliminator between Stevenson and Isaac Cruz, just for Cruz to resolve to take a distinct path. Meanwhile, the subsequent man in line, William Zepeda, was instructed by his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, that he needed further time to construct the combat between him and Stevenson into one thing extra financially interesting.
That’s simply the method boxing is in 2023, I suppose, with alternatives sometimes taken by these hungriest for them quite than those that, on credentials at the very least, deserve them. For Stevenson, although, a person on a mission, all he should do is deal with sustaining the stage we’ve got seen from him in consecutive fights in opposition to Robson Conceição (UD 12), Óscar Valdez (UD 12), and Jamel Herring (TKO 10). Should he try this it’s exhausting to see what Yoshino can try this 19 others had been unable to do in the presence of the New Jersey native. Should he try this one expects Stevenson, a southpaw with all the expertise, to create a large lead and by no means let go of it till he hears the last bell.
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