NEWARK, New Jersey — If you were one of the 8,000+ who were in the Prudential Center to watch Shakur Stevenson in action, you might have left before his contest against Artem Harutyunyan had ended.
Stevenson graded his performance -- a dominant unanimous decision win -- C+ effort. While it was a dominant performance, it is a fair grade considering the lack of pressure at various points. Still, following that honest assessment, fans watched as the WBC lightweight champion continued to call out Vasiliy Lomachenko and Gervonta Davis.
Will he get those career-defining superfights?
Stevenson entered free agency with a second forgettable decision victory, this time without Top Rank leader Bob Arum in attendance. Stevenson frequently fought out of the pocket, which he's often criticized for, though he did land 170 total strikes compared to 74 for his opponent, per CompuBox. The fans were unimpressed and some of them began leaving before the championship rounds commenced.
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“It’s kind of hard to prove [that you can be aggressive] if you don’t have a fighter who wants to fight back. He’s just trying to make sure he survives… I think the boos were because of him. He didn’t try to make the fight,” Stevenson said.
“I want to fight the best fighters in boxing. That’s how you’re going to get to see the best version of me.”
Stevenson is his own biggest critic, but he still believes the biggest fights will happen. He even wore a shirt after saying, "Bob saving his son (Lomachenko) from this a-- whooping.”
There were bright spots in his performance. Harutyunyan landed single-digit shots in eleven of twelve rounds, per CompuBox. Stevenson himself landed 20 or more four times.
It was a dominant win in his home state, another to add to the ledger, but the opposite of what he promised after a similar lackluster performance against Edwin De Los Santos.
“You're going to see a superstar in the ring on July 6. I'm going to put on a superstar performance,” Stevenson told Boxing Scene. “Honestly, I don't even want the fans to jump back on my bandwagon. They can stay where they are at. You can pay to see me lose because that's never going to happen.”
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The fight, which he reportedly made over $2 million for, was meant to be a breakout performance before the highest bidders would request his services. Instead, hometown fans were counting down the seconds until the fight ended, Royal Rumble style. They did the same in the co-main event between O'Shaquie Foster and Robson Conceicao.
Stevenson was always been highly touted and has received big paydays. ESPN reported that the three-weight world champ turned down a five-fight extension with Top Rank that would have guaranteed him $3 million per fight. Did his latest performance inspire confidence?
“Shakur would tell you that he hoped to be more impressive tonight, especially with free agency looming. He didn’t fight like there was a lot of pressure on him. He didn’t fight with the sense of urgency that I would have liked to see from him. But there was a lot of pressure on him because he thinks he’s worth more than Top Rank offered him,” Keith Idec of Boxing Scene told The Sporting News. "Yes, he’s a very talented guy, he’s got pound-for-pound potential. But these (past two) performances were not good.
“He even said it was a C+ performance. He clearly won the fight, but he needed to be more impressive tonight than he was. You miss an opportunity again in your hometown… by the eleventh round, there were diehard fans of Shakur Stevenson leaving the building. No fighter wants to see or hear that.
"I was looking for a lot more from Shakur tonight than winning an easy decision. I see his point that Harutyunyan was not trying to win but trying to survive. But I thought Harutyunyan was there to be knocked out by the midway point of the fight and then after."
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“Shakur Stevenson is a skilled fighter. But not all skilled fighters are entertaining fighters. On a night when Stevenson needed to make a splash, he settled for a win. Fans have no say on outcomes, but they do have a say as to who they are willing to pay money to see - and in the end, promoters factor this in nearly as much as wins and losses,” Gayle Falkenthal, West Coast Editor, NY Fights told The Sporting News.
“Let’s see who is willing to put some money down and sign Stevenson in the hope he eventually faces worthy opposition in an exciting matchup. But it’s a bit of a risky investment."
“It was a typical Shakur Stevenson performance. The unfortunate part was that he chose a risk-averse approach in front of his hometown crowd, whose boredom was evident by the alarming number of those who left before the end of the fight. There is a market for defensively gifted boxers, but there is a reason why the phrase is ‘make ‘em miss, make ‘em pay” and not just ‘make ‘em miss," said The Ring's Jake Donovan. "That is a hard lesson that Shakur will learn while attempting to test the free agent market at this time.
"All of his top divisional peers already have other plans for the rest of the year. The escalated fighters’ salaries have driven every U.S. platform to pay-per-view dependency just to get the fights that matter over the line. He has the right to name his price, and I don’t blame him for turning down what others would consider a generous offer from Top Rank.
"That said, the sport is at a place where it’s a major risk to leave guaranteed money on the table. If he hasn’t developed to the point where he can take on any of his divisional peers, that’s on his team. At his full capabilities, I don’t count out Shakur against any top fighter. But he’s put himself in a position where he has to chase those fights, and free agency won’t at all help his bargaining power.”
As a champion, Stevenson has every right to fight who he wants. He has the gift of gab and can back it up. But where does he go from here? Performances can make or break a fighter, and the WBC 135-pound champ needs to appeal more to the fans before dream fights become a reality.