Shakur Stevenson and his new promoter, Eddie Hearn, are looking to go the backdoor route to a fight against the Face of Boxing Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, with a bout against the occasional Joe Cordina and possibly William Zepeda.
The lingering stain of the De Los Santos fight
A dark cloud still follows Shakur from his questionable win over Edwin De Los Santos last November. It was a fight in which the judges gave Shakur a 12-round unanimous decision victory, even though he didn’t land anything.
There should be an asterisk next to Shakur’s win in the De Los Santos record books because he didn’t win it in the eyes of the fans and not with me.
The Nevada judges’ scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112. I watched the fight and saw De Los Santos win 8-4. It was impossible to give Shakur more than four rounds because he was not engaged all night and retreated around the ring.
The crowd at ringside at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas booed the fight from the third round on, and they got louder as the fight wore on in the later rounds.
Hearn’s calculated manipulation
Hearn is trying to slyly maneuver Shakur into a fight with Tank Davis in 2025 by feeding him the recently knocked out Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs). He even put the match on PPV on October 12 in Riyadh.
It is a sly way to maneuver Shakur into a massive battle against Tank that he didn’t deserve and has no chance of winning.
It’s a payoff for Shakur, just as Hearn set up his Matchroom fighter Edgar Berlanga for a similar money fight he can’t win against Canelo Alvarez.
Matchroom promoter Hearn is trying to set the table for the Tank-Shakur fight by making Shakur look golden by beating Cordina. Four months ago, Cordina looked like a punching bag in his eighth-round knockout loss to Anthony Cacace on May 18.
Unfortunately, Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) still has some unfinished business with Edwin De Los Santos that he needs to take care of before moving on to the next phase of a fight against Tank Davis, the #1 fighter in the lightweight division.
The boxing community believes De Los Santos was robbed in his fight against Shakur last November 16, as they saw no real punches other than takedowns that lacked power.
De Los Santos landed the most significant punches in all 12 rounds of the fight, and he looked like he did more than enough to get the win.
To truly earn a fight against Tank Davis, Shakur needs to raise his stock, which is now lower than low after three poor performances in his last four fights.
Casual boxing fans are unfamiliar with Shakur because his fights don’t generate any buzz, and hardcore fans like him a lot. They loathe Shakur and see him as a cheap knockoff of an old Mayweather in his later years.
The price of a fight against Tank Davis
- Edwin Delos Santos
- William Zepeda
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Abdullah Mason
