Tim Bradley believes the fight between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Shakur Stevenson will prove who is the best fighter in the 135-lb division when it happens. Bradley considers these two to be the best fighters in the lightweight division, and he thinks this is a fight that will happen.
Shakur’s fight at 135
Stevenson has only fought three times since moving up to 135 and looked terrible in two of the bouts. Those performances put a big question mark over Shakur’s viability at 135, and it’s not among the top two fighters in the division.
Hearn thinks Shakur, 27, may be unbeatable, but fans who saw his fight against Edwin De Los Santos last November see it differently.
Shakur doesn’t have the strength and the dog to stand in the pocket and fight lightweights who can pack a punch. Against Zepeda and Tank, Shakur will have to find a part of his game that he hasn’t shown during his career.
Tank-Shakur might not happen if WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) loses to William Zepeda next February. It’s a fight that Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is planning for him after he takes a warm-up bout against Joe Cordina on Oct. 12 in Riyadh.
“I hope so. I don’t see why,” Tim Bradley told the Title Sports Network YouTube channel when asked if he believed a fight between Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson would ever happen. “To be the best, you have to beat the best. People need to understand this. Fighters have to understand that.”
tank vs. Shakur will happen next year, provided Stevenson knows his place and doesn’t foolishly praise himself thinking he deserves a 50-50 split. If he does, he won’t get the fight and will never get the opportunity because he’s not on Davis’ level in terms of marketability.
“It’s about competition. Gervonta Davis believes he’s the best 135-pounder out there, but you’ve got other guys who think they’re the best. So, now you have to fight. Put it together to find out who is the best so we can see.
“I don’t care if the fight is going to be boring. No, put the best in the ring together. Well, it’s between two fighters. It’s between Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis. The only way we can find out, they have to get in the ring,” Bradley said when asked who he sees as the best fighter in the 135-lb division.
You can’t say that Shakur is among the top two in the lightweight division because he hasn’t looked impressive in two of the three fights since moving up to 135 in 2023. What Shakur’s fight against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos showed is that he is not the fighter he was at 126 or 130.
He’s not comfortable with his opponents’ strength, and his punches don’t have the punch to hurt or knock them back. Surprisingly, Bradley can’t see it. Is he starting to lose his grip, or was he never a good judge of fighters?
– William Zepeda
– Raymond Muratalla
– Keyshawn Davis
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Andy Cruz
– Floyd Schofield
– Abdullah Mason
At least four of those fighters would beat Shakur handily and should be considered potential opponents with Tank. Mason, Zepeda, Cruz and Schofield would have an excellent chance to beat Shakur, even with the set of judges who worked his fight with De Los Santos last year.
Those judges gave Shakur laps where he literally ran, and they didn’t have to. With the above four fighters, they would take the judges off the hook against Shakur.
“I think everyone will be surprised what that fight would look like. I was heavy on Shakur at one point, but his last few shows have thrown me off a bit. This is more for the technical point of view. People think I hate the kid because he’s not at Top Rank or at ESPN.
“That’s not necessarily true. There are certain things that he does in the ring that Tank can take advantage of, and there are certain things that he can take advantage of in certain areas. I think it’s a closer fight than I originally thought it was going to be just based on the recent research that we’ve seen. The recent results we’ve seen with Shakur and Tank Davis,” Bradley said.
When Shakur stood and fought his last opponent in the bag, Artem Harutyunyan, he was very affected and did not look good in their fight on July 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. That fight showed that Shakur was too weak to hold his own against fighters and would be in trouble when facing Zepeda, Tank, or any of the other hard-hitting lightweights in the division.
