What Hearn doesn’t understand is that Shakur’s career would likely look very similar, with ups and downs, if he were fighting higher-level fighters at 135 and 140.
If he’s tested himself the way Teofimo has over the past five years, there’s a very good chance Shakur has lost several times by now. Matching covers a multitude of errors.
“People don’t realize how consistently Shakur Stevenson is. If you look at Teofimo Lopez, he’s like that (up and down),” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn. YSM Sports Media. “When he came down from the Loma fight, he lost track because life got hard.”
Consistency is easy when a fighter like Shakur feasts on custom opponents. I won’t go into the long list of fighters Stevenson faced during his career. But what I will say is that he didn’t run the same rig that Teofimo has.
Teofimo had the tough road as a pro, a real trooper. If you had 10 more like him in a platoon, you’d have an elite team.
“When these kids start making a lot of money and get a lot of fame, it’s not easy to deal with. Fighters have to look at Shakur. He’s always in camp. He’s never out of shape. You’ll never see him drunk. You’ll never see him doing stupid things. Money is secondary. Legacy is principle,” Hearn said.
Fighters can live it up outside the ring and still find success. Where it goes off the rails is when they put on a lot of weight, drink too much and remain inactive for long stretches.
What Hearn doesn’t say is that once some fighters get a taste of money, they focus on looking for similar well-paying fights. That’s all their careers have become. They turn into prize fighters, and they often do not face the best.
One could argue that’s what Shakur has become. He got a taste of the golden riches against William Zepeda with a reported $5 million payday, and now he’s left the WBC lightweight division and moved up to 140 to face Teofimo Lopez.
It’s about money. In his last seven fights, Teo has looked like a shell of the fighter Lomachenko beat in 2020.
