There is much hype about him at the moment and maybe we are slightly responsible for that. Upon further consideration, even after the outstanding fight and win he had recently against Teofimo Lopez, we will need to cool that slightly for Stevenson.
He boxed great in that and put on a clinic by wide UD, busting up Lopez easy but Lopez was and is a shell of himself compared to years ago.
It was a good win though but Lopez was very poor.
Stevenson is doing well but he needs to take on Gervonta Davis in the eyes of boxing and for the fans to see his credentials.
His defense is excellent, you can’t take that away from him. He is difficult to hit and his counters can be very sharp and the jab can be excellent.
But his punching power is not what the likes of someone like a prime Mayweather in his featherweight days were.
People forget that the early Mayweather days when he was a featherweight and lightweight saw him brutally knocking out high level competition and world champions regularly.
The old Mayweather was a knockout artist and that is something Shakur Stevenson has not really ever showed.
Also Terence Crawford in his lighter days down around featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight was often a big KO merchant.
Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and others as well in terms of all time greats often showed tremendous punching power and knockout ability.
Would Stevenson had enough pop on his jab and power shots to really have kept these all time greats off in their primes?
We are not sure about that.
Who knows what will happen Shakur Stevenson this year but he needs to fight someone like a Gervonta Davis, Lamont Roach or a Ryan Garcia or someone credible like Lopez last time, in his next bout, soon.
He’s a multiple weight world champion at a young age but you have to keep things in perspective when talking about him and all time greats like the above for now.
