Shakur Stevenson blossomed right into a bona fide pound-for-pounder in his final two fights.
Final October he made veteran 130-pound champion Jamel Herring look amateurish in a 10-round stoppage. Then, outdoing himself this previous April, he outclassed beforehand unbeaten Oscar Valdez in a title-unification bout to win a large resolution.
Subsequent up for the 2016 Olympic silver medalist: Robson Conceicao on Friday at Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey, Stevenson’s house city (ESPN, ESPN+).
“It was a wonderful show of boxing,” Stevenson informed RingTV.com, referring to the victory over Valdez. “I feel I confirmed lots of ability in that struggle. I picked him aside. That was the largest struggle of my profession and I did every little thing I used to be alleged to do.
“I did every little thing I mentioned I used to be going to do. He’s an important fighter however he was simply in with higher opposition.”
Conceicao (17-1, 8 KOs) presumably can be too, though he is perhaps a greater pure boxer than Herring and Valdez.
The 33-year-old Brazilian received a gold medal within the light-weight division on the 2016 Video games, through which Stevenson was runner up at bantamweight to Cuban Robeisy Ramírez.
Conceicao got here up quick in his solely skilled title shot, shedding a unanimous resolution (117-110, 115-112 and 115-112) to then-champion Valdez a yr in the past. Nevertheless, some imagine he deserved the nod in that struggle.
He rebounded by simply outpointing beforehand unbeaten Xavier Martinez in January.
“He’s an excellent fighter,” Stevenson mentioned Wednesday. “However I feel he misplaced towards Valdez. In case you left it within the judges’ fingers, then you definitely misplaced. I fought Valdez, and I beat the s— out of him. I don’t have any excuses.
“He’s speaking about having COVID or one thing earlier than his final struggle. All I hear are excuses. I’m able to struggle. Inform him to not have any excuses on Friday night time. I’m able to beat him up.”
Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) can be preventing at 130 kilos for the sixth time. Might or not it’s his finale on the weight?
He has hinted that it’s getting troublesome to make 130, that means he’ll quickly be shifting as much as the deep, extra glamorous light-weight division. Followers are already clamoring for a showdown between Stevenson and undisputed 135-pound champion Devin Haney.
In fact, Stevenson can pursue one other belt at 130 towards both Hector Garcia (WBA) or Joe Cordina (IBF) or maybe face each in pursuit of the undisputed championship in that division.
He informed RingTV.com that he hasn’t decided on his subsequent step, assuming he beats Conceicao.
“I can’t offer you a solution on that, I’ll need to see after I end my weight reduce,” he mentioned. “I don’t understand how arduous the load reduce goes to be. I’d like to go undisputed by grabbing every belt, one after the other.
“But when I can’t do the load, I’m not going to power myself to go down in weight after I actually don’t need to. I’m taking every struggle because it comes.”
He is aware of just one factor.
“On the finish of the day, I don’t understand how massive I’m going to get,” he mentioned. “I don’t know what weight class I’m going to fall in, however wherever I’m at, I’m going to dominate.”
