It may have gone a miss to some casual fans of the sport of boxing. But over the weekend Shakur Stevenson made a statement at MGM Grand Arena by comfortably beating the previously undefeated Oscar Valdez, by an almost shut out unanimous points victory.
In doing so he retained his WBO Super Featherweight title and won the WBC Super Featherweight and Ring Magazine titles.
The man managed by former p4p great Andre Ward and good friends with current p4p great Terrence Crawford. The fact that he won was not a huge surprise, after all, he is undefeated and almost untroubled in his 18 fights.
It’s not even the fact that he is now the unified super featherweight title and by claiming the Ring Magazine title, he is now regarded the no1 in the division.
But it was the manor of his victory that needs to be acknowledged and put into perspective. Stevenson was fighting the undefeated two division champion Oscar Valdez who is a ferocious puncher with 23 knockouts from his 30 wins.
A real tough cookie who broke his jaw in the fourth round of this fight with Scott Quigg in 2018 but never gave up and battled his way to a convincing but hard-fought unanimous points victory.
Valdez, who last February, moved up a weight and as a huge betting underdog, challenged Miguel Berchelt, another tough Mexican for the WBC super featherweight title.
Berchelt had only lost once in 39 fights and Valdez, the smaller guy, performed out of his skin before destroying Berchelt with a devastating knockout out of the year contender in the 10th round.
However, none of that phased Stevenson who was the bigger guy but knew Valdez, who maybe is not elite but certainly no pushover, had the aggression and power to trouble him.
Generally, in a boxer vs puncher type fight, the boxer will have to endure a few tough rounds early, then hopefully get to work from the 3rd or 4th round.
But Stevenson got to work from the very first bell and seemed to really enjoy it.
His slick boxing, quick feet, lighting reactions and overall pure boxing ability, snuffed out any threat Valdez had.
He made Valdez look ordinary and at times seemed to have his way, smiling while going to work, switching shots from the body to head and even finding angles around Valdez’ high guard.
You were watching a real technician. Everything Valdez did or tried, Stevenson had an answer for. He would then almost at will, step it up and deliver his own punishment.
That was no more evident in the sixth round where Valdez, already behind on the cards, tried to push the pace, but Stevenson caught him with a check hook, sending Valdez into the ropes, then followed with another low hook sending Valdez down.
From then on Stevenson knew he had the beating of Valdez, who started to get increasingly desperate, throwing wild hooks, that Stevenson easily navigated then went back to work.
If there was a criticism of Stevenson, it would be he does not seem to have that killer instinct or real big one punch power. But who really needs that when you can control and dominate your opponents so much.
What makes Stevenson so special is he seems to use his opponents’ strengths and make them a weakness, with his speed, timing, exceptional defence and pure boxing ability. Dear I say, he is or seems very Mayweather’ish.
That is a huge compliment if I do say so myself. However, for those kinds of compliments to stick, we really need to see him in mega fights.
I would say his resume is not packed with names, which is not that surprising for someone with only 18 fights. But as a unified champion now, it has to only be mega fights from here on.
The good thing is, there are plenty of big challenges out there for him. If he wants to clean the division and be one of only few men to hold all the belts in his weight class.
He will have no issues challenging the IBF title holder, Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa or the WBA champion from Venezuela’s Roger Gutierrez.
But if we are talking real mega fights. He will look no further than the winner of the George Kambosos Jr and Devin Heaney fight on June 5th in Melbourne, Australia, for the undisputed lightweight titles.
That is a massive fight in its own fight. Stevenson against the winner to be a two division champion, could be even bigger. Or, if he is really brave, he could seek a fight with either the WBA regular lightweight title holder Gervonta Davis or even, he has mentioned before Lomachenko. Could you imagine how big those would be?
All in all, the future is really bright for Stevenson. The unified super featherweight title holder has the world at his feet and plenty of options ahead of him.
However, with great power comes great responsibility and the sharks will be circling.
He knows there will always be critics and people praying on his downfall, especially when you are that good and making fights look that easy.
The important thing is to continue doing what he is doing and remain focused, as the path he is on, if he maintains this trajectory, it could be a path of one of the all-time greats.
