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Shakur Stevenson looked down at the scales despondently. While he did his best to squeeze himself down to the 130-pound weight limit ahead of his showdown against Robson Conceicao, the former Olympic silver medalist waved the white flag. Although he was forced to give up both his WBC and WBO super featherweight titles, Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) brushed off his championship forfeiture and declared that he would compete going forward as a full-fledged lightweight.
In his 135-pound debut, Stevenson will look to become a WBC mandatory challenger when he takes on Shuichiro Yoshino on April 8. Largely, Stevenson is expected to run through the Japanese native before eventually making a championship run.
Ultimately, Stevenson’s objective is to become a title holder in his third consecutive division. Amongst his short term goals, however, the Newark, New Jersey native is hoping to eventually face off against Gervonta Davis.
Although Stevenson has stated on numerous occasions that he’ll take care of business against the 28-year-old, Davis revealed that, considering Stevenson was unable to close the show before the sound of the final in the majority of his bouts, he doubts that Stevenson will present him with much of a threat should the two tango.
“He didn’t even have power at 126, 30, or none of that,” said Davis to Morning Kombat. “How can you stop people that can actually hit?”
Thus far, what Stevenson ostensibly lacks in power, he’s made up for with supreme boxing ability. Even when asked to deal with the relentless pressure of both Oscar Valdez and Jeremia Nakathila, the 25-year-old boxed circles around them, leading to wide decision wins on the judge’s scorecards.
Still, despite Stevenson proving that he doesn’t need to be the biggest puncher in order to get the job, Davis concludes that in a sport as violent as boxing, his chin will be tested. When that ultimately happens, Davis has one succinct question for his budding rival.
“All that boxing, you gonna get hit. What you gonna do when you get hit?”
Davis will collide with longtime rival Ryan Garcia on April 22 in Las Vegas, in the main event of a Showtime pay-per-view card.