Shakur Stevenson believes his fight with Artem Harutyunyan this Saturday night will be the perfect “benchmark” for fans who will compare him to Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) defeated Frank Martin via eighth-round knockout on June 15 in a fight that went all the way to KO. Martin narrowly defeated Harutyunyan (13-1, 7 KOs) last year, defeating him by unanimous decision in 12 rounds on July 15, 2023.

Indigent choice of opponent

Shakur might have doubts about that, thinking fans would look at his fight with Harutyunyan as a measure of Tank Davis’ skills.

Die-hard boxing fans who saw the Martin-Harutyunyan fight have already formed an opinion about Shakur, who they think is a penniless choice of opponent, considering Artem lost to a guy who Tank knocked out in the eighth round.

Shakur’s only chance to impress the fans is to show courage, step into the penalty box and defeat Harutyunyan in a knockout victory. Anything less will be seen as a loss for Shakur in terms of his popularity, which will plummet.

“I think that’s a great metric. Because Tank fought Frank Martin and I fought Artem, we’re fighting the same level of opponents, damn close, because they [Martin & Harutyunyan] “We fought each other and we saw that they were on the same level,” Shakur Stevenson said MillCity Boxingfeeling that his opponent on Saturday night, Artem Harutyunyan, is a fighter of a similar skill level to Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ last challenger, Martin.

Harutyunyan is not a good point of reference for fans who compare Shakur to Tank Davis, because the fight with the guy looks terrible, especially considering he lost to Martin.

If Shakur wanted to impress the fans, he should have given Edwin De Los Santos a rematch because he could prove to the fans that he is capable of doing well against him while being 100 percent fit.

“Now you can evaluate our performances and get the fans a little excited,” Shakur said, putting a positive spin on his decision to fight Harutyunyan, who lost to Frank Martin.

Fans have already decided that Shakur is frail for choosing Harutyunyan as his opponent. The only way he can come out on top is by knocking him out on Saturday night.

Unfortunately, the chances of Shakur doing that are virtually zero. He fights too scared and won’t dare stand in the pocket to let go of his hands, even against a non-puncher like Harutyunyan.

Shakur wants to change his image

“I want to show everyone who I am. I think a lot of people have forgotten who I am as a fighter after one fight. [Edwin De Los Santos]“- Shakur said when asked what he would like to show the fans in his fight with the recently defeated 33-year-old Harutyunyan on Saturday.

“I don’t have consistent moments where I shine and look good, and then one night I have a bad day and everybody just hangs on to that,” Shakur said.

Unfortunately, Shakur’s fight with Edwin De Los Santos wasn’t the first time he’d been in a bad fight. He’d done the same thing in those fights:

-Joet Gonzalez
– Jeremiah Nakathilia
-Oscar Valdez
– Robson Conceição
– Jamel Herring
-Christopher Diaz

The odd duck in the professional ranks

Fans don’t often mention Shakur’s previous fights, but they weren’t very engaging to watch. Shakur used the same retreating style in the De Los Santos fight and made sure to rarely get hit.

While that’s great news for fans who enjoy watching defensive work, it wasn’t exactly stimulating. Shakur hasn’t changed his fighting style since his amateur days and fights the same way.

It doesn’t fit the professional game that fans are used to. Shakur is an oddball in the pro ranks, and it takes a special kind of fan to enjoy his approach to fighting.

There simply aren’t enough fans like that to make Shakur a real must-see star. If you put Shakur in a time machine and transported him back to the Mayweather era in the early 2000s, Floyd’s fans would appreciate his fighting style. Unfortunately, Shakur doesn’t fit that era.

TWO things we know. We know, one, that Shakur Stevenson is an acquired taste, as brilliant as he is frustrating, and we know, two, that his days with Top Rank, his current promoter, are numbered because he is, well, an acquired taste.

In boxing, as we see, winning—and winning all the time—is often not enough. For promoters, at least, the most critical thing is how a boxer wins, not the fact that he wins. Moreover, for the fans, those whose tastes ultimately dictate the promoter’s, it is imperative that a boxer be more than just adept at winning, regardless of the entertainment costs.

In the case of Stevenson, a 27-year-old from Newark, Up-to-date Jersey, there has long been a desire on the part of both promoter and fans for him to provide entertainment along with excellence. That those two things, entertainment and excellence, rarely coexist in a sport like boxing has no bearing on the demands of his audience and his paymasters, it seems.

That’s why this Saturday (July 6) he will once again be expected to not only win over Artem Harutyunyan, but win in a way that will satisfy anyone who has criticized the way he’s won fights before. That is, with ease, dominance, and very little effort (at first glance).

Of course, Stevenson has the right to decide how to win his fights. If he wins, he will retain his WBC lightweight title, and he will also earn money and be able to fight names that, who knows, could elevate him in terms of status and marketability. That was the case with Floyd Mayweather, another controversial fighter who wasn’t winning his fights “properly,” long before Stevenson came along. In Mayweather’s case, what really got things moving, taking him from “Pretty Boy” to “Money,” was the influence of opponents like Arturo Gatti and Oscar De La Hoya, both of whom were the perfect complements to a boxer whose goal was always to win, not to entertain the crowd.

For Stevenson, 21-0 (10), something similar could happen in the future. After all, he’s surrounded by big-name fighters, including Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. Any one of that trio could work as Stevenson’s dance partner, and there’s a good chance the threat they pose would be enough to bring out the best in Stevenson and prove to people that he’s a champion worth investing in.

There seems to be some hesitation on that front at the moment. Even his own promoter, Top Rank, seems to be hesitant and unsure about the prospect of retaining Stevenson’s services beyond his next fight (the last under his current contract with them). If they don’t, Stevenson will naturally become a free agent, at which point a number of suitors will emerge and he will have the opportunity to find a home elsewhere.

That seems like the most likely scenario at this point. In fact, Stevenson has already claimed that Top Rank have essentially told him to “go see the market” before coming back to them, suggesting that potential suitors will have the same reservations about Stevenson’s box office appeal as Top Rank.

That may be true, but it’s clear that whether it’s true or not, the relationship between Stevenson and Top Rank is fractured, broken. Ever since they gave George Kambosos the title fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko (which Stevenson had once so desperately wanted), Stevenson has clearly felt disrespected, overlooked, and undervalued by them. He’s accepted that there was nothing he could do about the situation, but he’ll know that he’s fully responsible and in control of his reputation and appeal to his fans. That’s why a fight like this, another one with Artem Harutyunyan, is so critical, both for the present (keeping his title) and the future (earning lucrative opportunities). Beating Harutyunyan on Saturday night is critical, yes, but it’s not enough. But that won’t be enough because of the nature of the fight — no one asked for it — and it won’t be enough because Shakur Stevenson, now more than ever, is in a store window, begging passersby to stop long enough to appreciate what he’s selling.

NEWARK, N.J. — As an American boxer coming off an Olympic lightweight title, comparisons to Floyd Mayweather Jr. were inevitable for Shakur Stevenson. As he approaches what could be his final fight with Top Rank, those comparisons have never been more apt.

Like Mayweather 20 years earlier, Stevenson signed with Top Rank after winning a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, having won world titles in three different divisions. And like Mayweather, Stevenson seems ready to test the free agent market after the final fight on his current promotional deal, which takes place this Saturday against Artem Harutyunyan at the Prudential Center in his hometown of Newark, N.J.

“I see a lot of similarities between me and Floyd,” WBC lightweight titleholder Stevenson (21-0, 10 knockouts) said at a news conference Wednesday before stopping to talk about what he called “this situation.”

“I’m not even going to try to talk about it. It is what it is, but Saturday night, tune in. I’m going to put on an amazing show.”

It’s no secret that Stevenson, 27, was furious about the way his marketability had been portrayed. Top Rank founder Bob Arum told boxing journalist Lance Pugmire that he encouraged Stevenson to try the free-agent market, saying he would welcome him back if he couldn’t get a better deal. Arum suggested that his lack of knockouts — just two in his last seven fights — had hindered his development as a boxing star.

Stevenson, for his part, told reporter Manouk Akopyan that he felt his career slowed down when he moved up to 135 pounds and that he should be matched up with lightweight stars George Kambosos Jr. or Vasiliy Lomachenko.

“Bob Arum is basically trying to say ‘Top Rank or nothing’ and basically trying to say I have no other options but Top Rank,” Stevenson told Akopyan.

While there have been criticisms of Stevenson’s approach to the safety-first sport since he turned pro, those whispers turned to deafening screams after his last fight, a 12-round battle last November against Edwin De Los Santos in which the two boxers combined for 105 punches. Stevenson admits he could have done better, but he doesn’t feel the fight should define him.

“I appreciate the fans that really pay attention and really understand the sport of boxing. The ones that don’t, I don’t give a damn. Just like they say ‘fuck me,’ I say ‘fuck them.’ I appreciate the ones that come out and support and understand that the art of boxing is to hit and not get hit. And understand that my last fight wasn’t every night. I don’t do this every night. There are nights when I’m asking for a crowd, I’m hitting people, I’m in the pocket. I’m one of the best pocket fighters, so that’s frigid, but they’ve got to stand their ground,” Stevenson said.

While Stevenson admits he dreams of bigger fights with the likes of Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Lomachenko and even his number one favorite William Zepeda, he knows he first has to beat Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs), a 33-year-old Armenian based in Germany who is best known for his tough challenge to Frank Martin in his last fight, a unanimous decision loss almost a year ago.

Stevenson suggested the possibility of a more aggressive stance towards Harutyunyan, advising him on the podium to “run for your life”, to which Harutyunyan joked “so I should put on running shoes?”, referring to allegations that Stevenson is a “runner”.

However, he added that he is not looking to fight in a way that would draw a larger audience in order to boost his value on the free agent market.

Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank

“It would just be putting pressure on myself, like I said, I keep the pressure off myself. My main goal is to have fun, have a good time, put on the show I want to put on. Show the art of boxing, I think that’s my main goal. Hit and don’t get hit, that’s what I want to see on Saturday night,” said Stevenson, whose manager is James Prince.

Wali Moses, Stevenson’s grandfather/trainer, says the fight gives Stevenson a chance to outshine Martin before he sees what offers are available as a free agent. Moses says it’s just clever business.

“It’s a business. Most fighters are trying to do what’s best for themselves in terms of the business, the things that are going to be most profitable and beneficial for them in their career. You throw yourself out there, see what’s out there, and when you get back in, you come to Top Rank and see what they want to do. Then you negotiate which way you’re going to go. You don’t want to just jump into anything right now, at this point in his career,” Moses said.

“I’m sure he wants to do what’s best for himself and his family.”

If Stevenson is distracted by the winds of change in his life and career, he didn’t show it during the pre-fight scuffle, as he clutched his championship belt and glared fiercely at the hefty underdog. Then, as the two exchanged words, Stevenson burst out laughing before Harutyunyan sniffed his arm.

“He’s like, ‘What cologne are you wearing? That shit smells good,'” Stevenson recalled of the interaction.

Stevenson is hoping, for his own good, that Saturday’s performance will prove just as attractive to potential promotional partners.