Shakur Stevenson can be taking his probabilities of getting an enormous mega-million supply on the free agent market after turning down an enormous $15 million contract extension from his promoters at Prime Rank.
Bob Arum’s Prime Rank was providing WBC light-weight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) a deal that will have required a minimal of $3 million per battle, which apparently wasn’t sufficient for him to just accept.
Potential Suitors and Unsure Future
Shakur’s choices are believed to be between Matchroom, PBC, and Mayweather Promotions. None of them can assure success along with his future, as he’s not appeared good since his win over Shuichiro Yoshino in April 2023.
Whoever indicators Shakur as a free agent will probably must high the $15 million that Prime Rank was providing to increase his contract with them, and he won’t be value it.
He doesn’t entertain the followers, and his final two fights in opposition to De Lo Santos and Harutyunyan confirmed he couldn’t beat Gervonta Davis or Vasily Lomachenko with no controversial choice. These fighters are too fashionable for them to be handled in the identical approach De Los Santos in his controversial loss to Shakur final November.
A promotional firm ought to solely signal Shakur as a free agent if it’s a one-fight deal, and even then, provided that they’ve an enormous battle obtainable in opposition to a killer like Gervonta Davis, Vasily Lomachenko, William Zepeda, or Andy Cruz. Signing Shakur to a long-term deal could be a foul threat and never value any cash.
Shakur Not Designed for Light-weight
There’s a rising perception that Shakur isn’t reduce out for the light-weight division and could be higher off coming back from whence he got here at 130 or 126. The paydays are smaller in these divisions, however that’s the place Shakur has his greatest probability of trying good as a result of his dimension benefit.
Stevenson is much like Adrien Broner, who wasn’t the identical fighter when he moved up from 130 to 147. It’s the identical factor. Shakur’s punches have little pop, forcing him to maneuver across the ring to win his fights.
Final Saturday, Shakur broke the mould aggressively in opposition to the light-hitting Artem Harutyunyan and received a twelve-round unanimous choice on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey. Nonetheless, Shakur may battle like that due to Harutyunyan’s lack of punching energy and hand velocity. He had the best opponent for him to face and commerce, but he nonetheless couldn’t put a dent on this man.
Gervonta Davis’ assistant coach, Kenny Ellis, commented about Shakur’s incapability to knock out Harutyunyan. He feels Abdullah Mason would have knocked Harutyunyan out. He’s solely 20 years previous and was preventing on the undercard final Saturday regardless of having proven extra capability to be a crowd-pleaser and a real star.
