Eddie Hearn Tasked With Making Shakur Stevenson The ‘Superstar’ His Talent Deserves
Eddie Hearn added another American champion to his stable on Thursday when it was announced Shakur Stevenson had joined Matchroom Boxing.
Stevenson (22-0-0 10 KO) ended his career-long association with Top Rank following his last fight – a typically wide points win in July over Artem Harutyunyan – amid accusations that the Bob Arum-led company was stalling his career.
The New Jersey native’s first task as a Matchroom fighter has already been assigned and he will face stablemate, and former two-time super-featherweight world champion, Joe Cordina on October 12. Their fight will serve as the co-main event of the undisputed light-heavyweight bout between Artur Beterbiev and Dimitrii Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“I am ready to start this next chapter of my career and it begins on October 12 with Joe Cordina on the stacked Riyadh Season card in Saudi Arabia,” said Stevenson.
“I’ve made it clear that I want the biggest names and the biggest fights in the sport. Bring on William Zepeda at the top of 2025 and I’m ready for anyone who is brave enough to step in the ring with me. There have been few willing to take on that challenge in recent years.
“With Matchroom and Riyadh Season, I am teaming up with a promotional force that matches my world-class talent. We will be unstoppable in and out of the ring, and I will continue to show my dominance for many years to come in the sport of boxing.”
Stevenson ‘Should Be A Global Superstar’
In announcing the signing of Stevenson, Hearn said he will now be guiding the career of one of the finest fighters of his generation and believes he has the right team to take the three-weight world champion into the stratosphere.
“I am delighted to welcome what I believe is a pound-for-pound great to the Matchroom team,” said Hearn. “Shakur Stevenson is 27 and already a three-division world champion and might be unbeatable in the sport of boxing.
“This young man should be a global superstar, and I believe with our machine behind him, he will land all the big fights and receive all the credit that he deserves. The journey begins on October 12 in Riyadh on a huge card, and we cannot wait for the future together.”
In a way, Stevenson could be Hearn’s most challenging project yet. Here is an established world champion who has achieved everything possible in the ring but whose success has not translated into transcendent star status.
What more can Hearn and Matchroom do that’s not already been done to alter the narrative around the WBC lightweight champion?
Firstly, they need to get Stevenson out of the cycle that has made him a victim of his own success. The American is one of the most technically gifted fighters on the planet, but his style fails to capture the casual fans required that make a boxer a pay-per-view star.
Stevenson Needs The Biggest Fights
Stevenson’s lack of knockout prowess certainly contributes to that, although Floyd Mayweather Jr didn’t stop many of his late-career opponents at a time when his earnings were at their highest.
As a result, Stevenson has struggled to secure many of the fights fans want to see him involved in, with fellow champions and top challengers reluctant to face him and risk defeat when the financial rewards are not great enough. Without those mega fights, Stevenson remains trapped in bouts against lower-tier opponents he routinely beats comfortably that do little to enhance his star power, and the cycle continues.
Nothing can or should be done about Stevenson’s fighting style to make it more fan-friendly. He is so skillful and so intelligent that abandoning those foundations in search of a more entertaining style would ultimately be detrimental to his long-term success.
Instead, the focus for Hearn must be on securing the biggest possible fights – and there are so many around the lightweight and super-lightweight divisions that there should be no excuses.
As Stevenson mentioned, taking on the unbeaten top-ranked challenger Zepeda early next year is a good start, but unification bouts against WBA champion Gervonta Davis and IBF title holder Vasiliy Lomachenko are the big matchups that would propel Stevenson into superstar-land, should he win.
Davis And Lomachenko Need To Be The Priority
Beyond Davis and Lomachenko, fights against WBA super-lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez or two-weight world champion Devin Haney would have a similarly positive impact on Stevenson’s career.
Not long ago, the lightweight division was controlled by Stevenson and his fellow Americans Lopez, Haney, and Davis, and the lack of fights between the four champions was unforgivable.
That could soon change now Stevenson has partnered with Hearn and has started working with Saudi Arabian boxing boss Turki Alalshikh; his fight against Cordina in October will be his first on a Riyadh Season card.
Alalshikh has proved that he’s happy to handsomely pay fighters so long as he’s matching them in big and competitive fights. The Saudi is also driven by ambition and ego, determined to be the man creating the massive bouts that had previously eluded other matchmakers.
In that regard, there are so many appealing options for Stevenson, who can become a “global superstar” purely through performance. He just needs those fights to be made, and with Hearn and Alalshikh in his corner, those bouts should finally come to fruition.
