Shakur Trains With Crawford – ‘Shakur Gonna Be Ruthless’
Shakur Stevenson has been training with Terence Crawford in preparation for his next fight.
Stevenson has his first fight with Matchroom Boxing when he takes on Joe Cordina on October 12. It is a massive stage as he is the co-main event attraction on the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol Undisputed Lightweight Heavyweight Bout. Based on his last two performances, Shakur has been criticised for his fighting style. He fought a defensive fight against Edwin De Los Santos off the back foot, resulting in mass boos from the fans.
His last fight against Artem Harutyunyan was much better, as Shakur sat inside the pocket. Despite dominating his opponent, he never looked like he was stopping fans. Some fans jeered and left before the final round. A fight against Cordina offers Shakur the chance to get a stoppage. Cordina will move up from super featherweight, giving Stevenson the advantage of being the bigger fighter. Cordina is also coming off a knockout loss to Anthony Cacace.
It was the first defeat of his career as he lost his IBF Super Featherweight Belt. Crawford has an extensive record of stopping his opponents. He is 41-0 with 31 knockouts. While Crawford failed to stop Israil Madrimov in his last fight, it was his first fight at 154.
Before that, he had stopped all his opponents at 147 before moving up. Now, it appears Shakur is trying to increase his power. The following clip showz Shakur working the pads with Bud through combinations. Coach Greg Hackett felt Cordina was the perfect opponent for Shakur to dominate.
Training
“What Eddie Hearn is doing is bringing his name back off the ground, giving him someone he should cook. Joe Cordina is to be respected. He’s not no chump, but he’s clearly not the favorite against Shakur. That’s okay, but Shakur has got to go in there and do what you do to the maximum. Give him a massive [backside] whooping,” Hackett said
Stevenson knows a stoppage will increase his chances of securing the Gervonta Davis fights. Tank is the WBA Lightweight Champion, meaning Shakur can unify and take a step closer to becoming undisputed with his WBC title. Davis will be the A-Side in negotiations since he has more commercial pulling power.
Shakur’s Future
His last fight against Frank Martin showed what he could do after a year out of the ring. After his Ryan Garcia win, Davis was jailed for 44 days after breaking the terms of his house arrest over a hit-and-run. But he returned impressively to knock out Martin on an Amazon Prime PPV. Stevenson has said he hopes to get the biggest fights, meaning he must dispatch Cordina in impressive style.
“I think the ‘Tank’ fight is more so possible. I think ‘Tank’ is not like no scary dude. ‘Tank,’ he believes in himself to the fullest. When he’s knocking them people out it gives him great confidence. I think that fight will happen. Yeah, I could see that happening [in the next 12 months],” Stevenson stated
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