Shakur Stevenson understands where he stands in the boxing food chain.
In a recent interview, the two-division titlist and current lightweight contender from Newark, New Jersey, praised Gervonta Davis for looking “sharp” against Ryan Garcia in their highly publicized fight last week at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Baltimore’s Davis dropped Victorville, California’s Garcia in the second round before stopping him for good in the seventh round with a left hand to the body.
Their fight was a reported runaway success on the pay-per-view platform and at the box office.
Stevenson, who has made it clear for a while he thinks a fight between himself and Davis is one of the best that can be made in the sport, offered some self-aware analysis of their respective careers.
Calling Davis the clear A-side, Stevenson said their potential fight would have to be entirely contingent on Davis’ call.
Complicating matters, of course, is that Stevenson is promoted by Top Rank, which is a rival to Premier Boxing Champions, which backs Davis.
“I’m ready right now, I’m ready right now (to fight Davis),” Stevenson told TMZ. “But I think it’s depending on what he wants to do. He’s the cash cow, he’s the A-side.
“He can pick and choose right now. He’s at that point. He’s like at the Floyd Mayweather point where he can go, ‘I’ll fight him, I’ll fight him, but I’ll wait to fight him.’
“He’s got that type of leverage right now so it’s all up to him. Nothing but respect to what he just did, I respect it.”
Stevenson, 25, is coming off a sixth-round knockout of Shuichiro Yoshino earlier this month in his lightweight debut at Prudential Center in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark.
Sean Nam is the author of the forthcoming book Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.