Shakur Stevenson showed his surgically repaired right hand functioning at full strength today during a pocket workout. He recently suffered a right hand injury for his fight against Joe Cordina., and had to cancel the match to undergo surgery.
Shakur’s hand problems
It will be interesting to see how long Shakur can go before limping back up with another hand injury and needing another round of surgery. He quickly becomes a infirmary commando with all his ailments, and he’s only 27. Shakur just isn’t cut out to be a lightweight.
He can’t physically make the grade, and he won’t be able to make a career out of using amateur fencing style against the top fighters at 135. To exist at lightweight, you have to actually fight and not run around the ring. mark. This is probably why Shakur has such a hard time getting the top names to fight him.
The judges are not going to give Shakur the benefit of the doubt like they did in his fight against Edwin De Los Santos, which he should have lost. If the crowd boos incessantly from the third round, the judges aren’t going to keep giving Shakur wins.
Top Rank may be thanking their lucky stars that Shakur chose not to re-up for another stint with their company and became Eddie Hearn’s problem at Matchroom.
Strength required to fight against 135
Stevenson’s brittle hands have failed him since moving up to lightweight, and it could be that his body can’t handle fights in this weight class.
Fighters are expected to possess power at 135, and if they are not blessed in that department Gervonta Davis, Abdullah Mason, and William Zepedathey have to charge with every ounce of energy they have. That’s what Shakur did; his hands cannot take it. They are not built for lightweight.
Assuming Shakur doesn’t suffer a setback with his fragile hands, he will need to find an opponent for the February 22 card in Riyadh.
William Zepeda doesn’t seem interested in fighting Shakur and is believed to be targeting a fight against WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis. This is the money fight for Zepeda, so why he would want to go in that direction instead of fighting Shakur is understandable.
Options for Shakur’s next fight
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Andy Cruz
– Raymond Muratalla
– Keyshawn Davis
– Floyd Schofield
Eddie Hearn wants to turn Shakur into a worldwide superstar, or at least that’s what he says, but if he matches him up against any of those fighters, it’s going to end badly.
Even with the judging panel that gave Shakur the win over De Los Santos last November, they won’t be able to control the boos from the fans. They give Shakur another controversial win, but the boom will be there more than ever if he faces one of those guys.
What’s interesting is how big Shakur looks. He has put on weight since his last fight on July 6 against Artem Harutyunyan and appears to be a full welterweight. He’s going to have to lose a lot of weight if he wants to get back to 135.
I don’t know what Shakur has been eating for the past five months to put on so much weight, but he needs to stay away from those foods.
Shakur has always been big at every weight class he’s fought since turning pro, but he’s massive for the 135-lb division. As big as he is, at 147 he should compete against fighters like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
It’s clear that Shakur, 27, will have a power disadvantage when he goes up against Boots Ennis, but if he’s as good as he and his fans believe, he should be able to fight guys his own size at welterweight.
Shakur hasn’t fared well in two of the three fights he’s had since moving up to 135 in 2023. He fought these two fighters: Edwin De Los Santos and Artem Harutyunyan.
2025 🔜…. 💨 pic.twitter.com/A8jxVEr2yX
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) November 23, 2024
