After winning titles at featherweight and junior lightweight, Shakur Stevenson moved up once again, this time to face Shuichiro Yoshino in a 12-round WBC lightweight title eliminator in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday. Stevenson finished Yoshino in the sixth round of a one-sided bout to become the mandatory challenger to the WBC lightweight title. [SOURCE: ESPN]
Newark New Jersey native, Shakur Stevenson dominated Oscar Valdez on the way to a unanimous decision victory Saturday to add the World Boxing Council super featherweight title to his own World Boxing Organization belt.
Stevenson improved to 18-0 as he handed Mexico's Valdez his first defeat in 31 professional fights.
Stevenson sent Valdez to the canvas with a left to the head in the sixth round on the way to his first defense of the WBO title he won with a 10th-round technical knockout of Jamel Herring in October.
On the scorecards Stevenson earned one score of 117-110 and two of 118-109 to unify Valdez's WBC world championship with his own WBO world title.
"I'm a superstar in this sport," said Stevenson, 24. "I want to collect all the belts at 130 and become undisputed. I deserve to be a superstar, so that's what I gotta do."
Valdez acknowledged that Stevenson was the better fighter on the night.>
"He was just the better fighter this night," said Valdez, 31. "He did what he had to do to win the fight. He's a great fighter. His speed is there, power is there."
Coronation complete🌹@BoostMobile x #ValdezStevenson pic.twitter.com/rUxzgwAzRj
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 1, 2022
In just his 17th professional fight, 24-year-old Newark NJ native, Shakur Stevenson stopped veteran Jamel Herring in 10 rounds to take Herring’s WBO 130-pound title.
Stevenson has now won major belts in two divisions.“I feel like Jamel Herring is a great fighter. He’s tough. He’s real tough, he’s got great boxing skills, he’s got great power. I was just the better man tonight,” Stevenson told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna. “Now that we’re not fighting, I love Jamel Herring, he’s definitely my friend. I don’t got no problem with Jamel. Tell his wife I’m sorry, I don’t want no trouble with you! She’s tough.”
Newark New Jersey's Shakur Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) dominated every round of his fight with Jeremiah Nakathila , cruising to a shutout unanimous decision victory to claim the WBO interim junior lightweight title.
All three judges scored the bout 120-107 in favor of Stevenson, who registered a knockdown of Nakathila (21-2, 17 KOs) in the fourth round from a short right hook.
Stevenson outlanded Nakathila 114 to 28 in total punches. Stevenson also landed 46% of punches, as compared to Nakathila's 12%. Stevenson appeared to hurt Nakathila several times in the early rounds but failed to finish him.
Stevenson is already looking ahead to his title opportunity, which should come in his next fight. He's the No.1 contender for both the WBO and WBC junior lightweight belts, and he has been the mandatory challenger for the WBO title for several months now.
Stevenson's promoter, Top Rank has paperwork already drawn up for Stevenson to return to the ring in late fall or early winter 2021 against a fellow southpaw in WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring for his title.
Shakur Stevenson is vacating the WBO featherweight world title to move up to the junior lightweight division.
"We're moving on up ... We're getting all the belts, and everyone at 130 [pounds] can get it," Antonio Leonard, who co-promotes Stevenson, told ESPN on Thursday.
Stevenson, 23, won the vacant featherweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Joet Gonzalez in October. On June 9, Stevenson stopped Felix Caraballo in a non-title junior lightweight fight.
"I just didn't want to keep making that weight," Stevenson told ESPN. "I think I should be in the rankings to fight for a title [at junior lightweight] ASAP. I think I deserve it."
At the junior lightweight division, the belts are held by Miguel Berchelt (WBC), Jamel Herring (WBO), Joseph Diaz Jr. (IBF) and Rene Alvarado (WBA).
"We're putting all those guys on notice at 130," said Leonard, adding that Stevenson could be ready to fight again in August. "They can bring the belt, vacate them, because Shakur's going to whup everybody -- it don't matter who it is. We're taking on all comers."
Former Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson did what he needed to do to get past his latest test in Joet Gonzalez to claim the WBO featherweight title on Saturday night in Reno, Nevada. Stevenson (13-0) used his speed and quickness to outbox Gonzalez (23-1) with craft over the 12-round contest. Stevenson becomes the second youngest active champion in boxing at just 22 years old, only two years older than __ champion Devon Haney.
Gonzalez never truly got his opportunity to take out his frustrations on the Olympian, though, as Stevenson outlanded him 121-53 according to CompuBox. Stevenson was also the more active fighter, throwing 510 punches to Gonzalez's 494.
"It's an amazing feeling," Stevenson said. "I came here to Reno close to his hometown and I wiped him out.
"It's an amazing feeling being that I grinded for this my whole life."
Blue-chip featherweight prospect Shakur Stevenson, a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist, scored three knockdowns in a spectacular first-round knockout performance against battle-tested veteran Viorel Simion in the co-feature of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card headlined by the Terence Crawford-Jose Benavidez Jr. welterweight title fight.
Watch the highlights below:
Shakur Stevenson, (8-0, 4 KOs), of Newark NJ, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, won a unanimous eight-round decision over Carlos Ruiz (16-4-2, 6 KOs), of Mexico City, in a featherweight bout.
Stevenson had won his two fights prior to Ruiz by knockout, but spent most of the bout moving laterally along the ropes, throwing just enough punches to win every round.
Ruiz followed Stevenson around but never launched an attack. Every round was the same, totally void of highlights.
After the fight, members of Stevenson's camp claimed he broke his right hand in the second round.
All three judges scored the fight for Stevenson, 80-72.
U.S. Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson won his professional debut, beating Edgar Brito by technical unanimous decision in the sixth round Saturday at the StubHub Center. Check out some of the action below.
By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com
Olympic boxer Shakur Stevenson didn't win the gold medal but he still made us in his home state of New Jersey proud. Shakur lost the gold medal match to Cuba's Robeisy Ramirez in a split decision of their three round fight (2-1). He will be bringing a silver medal back to his hometown of Newark NJ.
Shakur was distraught after the fight and believed that he let everyone down. The young man didn't let anyone down and we here in NJ are all proud of him. He is the first American man to bring back a boxing medal since 2004 and has a promising future ahead.
Today he didn't come out on top but he will be a champion at the next level one day. The silver medal is just the beginning of a long journey. American fighters like Michael Carbajal (5X Champion), Virgil Hill (4X champion), and Riddick Bowe (1x undisputed heavyweight champion) all won a silver medal and went on to have great careers.
Something tells me Shakur will join that list.
By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com
Other Black Olympians: Jenny Arthur weightlifting, Colton Brown wrestler
The 2016 Olympics are now under way and I will be highlighting black athletes competing in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio. I would like to start of with someone who is from Newark NJ which is right next door to me. That person would be boxer Shakur Stevenson, who many believe gives the United States a good chance at earning it's first gold medal in boxing in 12 years.
