Ryan Garcia Hits Out At Shakur Stevenson’s Performance – ‘He’s So Arrogant’

Ryan Garcia has hit out at Shakur Stevenson’s performance against Edwin De Los Santos that took place on November 16th, 2023. 

Stevenson became a three-division champion with a unanimous-decision win to secure the WBC lightweight title. However, the manner of the win drew a lot of criticism. During the course of the fight, the boxer received boos for failing to make it an entertaining fight. Shakur fought on the back foot, rarely throwing his left hand. The stats showed that only 21 punches came from that hand throughout the fight. And since Stevenson was aiming to secure the big names such as Gervonta Davis, his performance in that regard did not do him any favors. In response, this is what Garcia had to say. 

Garcia On Shakur

“Shakur, he’s been getting on my nerves since the amateurs. He’s so arrogant, and I don’t say that about nobody. But man, he just walks around like his sh!t don’t stink. And he talks sh!t about everybody and thinks he’s some type of dude who knows everything about boxing. 

“Well, if you knew everything about boxing, then why the hell did you not get to [De Los Santos]. He was scared of him and didn’t throw any punches … he has to humble himself a little bit … you’re boring as sh!t, and everybody knows it. That was boring. That was the best night of sleep I’ve ever had,” Garcia said

Nevertheless, it is important to consider the following points. Boxers are all capable of having an off-night. After all, it is a sport where the finest of margins can make a difference at the highest level. In addition, following Stevenson’s first fight in the lightweight division, that performance against De Los Santos was out of the blue. Shakur had stopped Shuichiro Yoshino on his debut at 135 pounds in the sixth round, which included dropping the former undefeated fighter on more than one occasion. 

Not only that, but there were suggestions that Shakur was injured as the fight with De Los Santos happened. The boxer himself remained coy over anything of that regard by refusing to make any excuses. However, Bob Arum did confirm that Stevenson had an injury when he entered the fight which may have contributed to his lacklustre performance. 

Arum On Shakur

“I think that Shakur had to fight the fight he did because I think he had some injuries, that kinda thing. I mean, I know we had him visiting doctors in the weeks before the fight for various ailments. So, I think he therefore fought a very cautious fight. I didn’t know specifically [what was wrong with Stevenson] because I was out of town.

“But [Top Rank’s] Dena [duBoef, Arum’s stepdaughter] reported to me that he went to see this doctor and that doctor for various ailments about two or three weeks leading up to the fight. So, I was quite aware of that. It was a shoulder problem that he had. I don’t know specifically, but that’s what I was told not last night, but during the time that it was happening,” Arum said

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