Ring Magazine added Shakur Stevenson to the #10-place on their top 10 pound-for-pound list after his win over WBC Tuss-Engine Lightweight Champion William Zepeda last Saturday night.
To move Shakur (24-0, 11 COs) on the P4P list does not sit right with many fans, who still question the nonsensical wide scores drawn by the three judges for his fight against Zepeda (33-1, 27 COs) in Queens, New York. The judges scored the battle as an almost exclusion to Stevenson with these strange scores:
-118-110 = 10-2
-118-110 = 10-2
-119-109 = 11-1
Zepeda wins: Infected P4P status?
Many fans had the fight as a 6-6 draw, and some even recorded it for Zepeda because he worked out Shakur in each round in the 12-round fight. I had it 12-0 for Zepeda, but took into account the body shots he hit Stevenson.
If you ignore the Mexican tornado’s powerful push to the city center, yes, then I can see that Stevenson has won the battle. Even then it was a razor victory. But judges are supposed to count body shots as part of their point criteria, and in this case it is clear that they did not. As such, Stevenson does not belong on Ring Magazine’s top 10 or even top 20-pound-for-pound list.
Ring magazine’s updated 10 p4p list
- Oleksandr usyk
- Naoya inoue
- Terence crawford
- Dmitri BIVOL
- Artur Betterbiev
- Junto nakatani
- Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez
- Canelo Alvarez
- Kenshiro teraji
- Shakur Stevenson
Okay, so Shakur should be off the list. That’s for the beginning. Other deductions are Kenshiro Teraji, Junto Nakatano, and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguz. None of them looked good enough or the kind of competition that made them worthy of being on the list. Shower them.
P4p snub: benavidez over shakur
Add David Banavidez because his recent victory over David Morrell shows that he is #1 at 175, and would have been #1 when he was 168 if Canelo fought him.
Move Terence Crawford on their way to the bottom because of its inactivity over the past five years. Fighting just once a year is not enough. His poor performance against Israil Madrimov in his previous fight also exposed him as a hype track.
Last updated on 07/16/2025
