There’s one universal policy in the world of boxing. Whatever happens behind closed doors during sparring, stays behind closed doors. Shakur Stevenson, however, cracked the curtains ever so slightly recently.
Following his sixth-round stoppage victory over Shuichiro Yoshino at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) essentially found himself in the driver’s seat. Of course, this upcoming weekend, both Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia will square off. The winner, unsurprisingly, has become a target of Stevenson.
Ultimately, despite expressing his desire to face the victor, Stevenson appears to be steadily focused on Devin Haney, the lightweight division’s undisputed champion. First things first, however, Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) will have to deal with Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20th.
By and large, Stevenson is of the belief that Haney will breeze through the Ukrainian, setting up a showdown between them later on this year. In an effort to drum up interest and goad Haney into sticking around at 135 pounds to face him, Stevenson brazenly revealed that no matter how many times the two sparred in years past, Haney always came out on the losing end.
Unamused by Stevenson’s words, Haney stoically explained that Stevenson wasn’t entirely telling the truth.
“The sparring was back and forth,” said Haney during a recent interview with DAZN. “There were times where he got the best of me, there were times when I got the best of him.”
Old sparring stories, especially those that took place several years ago, aren’t exactly pertinent in the eyes of Haney. Admittedly, the 24-year-old has come out on the losing end during numerous sparring sessions against countless Joe blows. And while he attempted to downplay Stevenson initially, Haney acknowledged that he wasn’t mendacious.
Still, even with Haney disclosing that Stevenson was the better man during their recent foray in the ring against one another, he isn’t letting those shortcomings affect his confidence. As he strolls through his palatial estate and glances at his well-stacked trophy case, he isn’t sweating what took place between them several years ago.
“Our latest sparring sessions was when I was 16 years old and he was getting ready for the Olympics. If we counting those then, it is what it is. What you did when we were kids don’t got nothing to do with now. There were a lot of guys that got the best of me when we were kids and look where they are now. They aren’t even boxing. Right now we’re in the same weight class and I’m the king of the division. It don’t matter what we did when we were kids.”