The ringwalks of Stevenson vs. Harutyunyan is scheduled for 11 pm ET / 4 am UK and the event will start at 9 pm ET / 2 am UK.
WBO lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) and #8 Artem Harutyunyan will meet live on ESPN on July 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
This is a disappointing decision for Shakur, but many believe that the Twitter star is risk-averse, which is normal for him.
Shakur recently bragged about how he wanted to fight a top opponent, but instead, turned down the dangerous Raymond Muratalla, the #2 contender, in favor of Harutyunyan.
The 33-year-old freshman Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) was rumored to be one of Shakur's two opponents for the 2016 Olympic silver medal, but now it's clear.
Mike Coppinger broke the law news of Stevenson's battle vs. Harutyunyan was completed on July 6.
Harutyunyan gave Frank Martin all he could handle last July in a 12-round unanimous decision in a contest he had won in the first half of the fight.
He was nearly beaten by the unproven Martin, who made him look like an incompetent, muscle-bound man before running out of gas in the seventh. Harutyunyan has excellent technical skills, but his cardio is terrible.
If Harutyunyan was in better shape, he would have won the fight, and made it look easy because he was on a higher level than Martin in the beginning when he was at full strength.
Considering Shakur's last fight was against Edwin De Los Santos in November of last year, he has a lot to prove to the fans. Shakur ran De Los Santos the entire fight, showing no willingness to mix it up with powerful punches and doing the absolute minimum to win the decision.
A Future of Boredom?
After the competition, Shakur and his promoters at Top Rank blamed his performance on a few injuries. However, he fought the same way in his four fights, and there are no excuses for injuries after those fights.
This will be the last fight for Shakur, 26, in his contract with Top Rank, and it is expected that he will leave and look for another promoter to join him who can give him the fights he wants.
Shakur has plans to fight these four at lightweight:
Gervonta Davis
Emanuel Navarrete
Vasily Lomachenko
William Zepeda
Signing with PBC probably won't help Shakur fight Tank Davis because they can't double the arm of the Baltimore native to fight him, as he has shown no interest in that matchup.
Arum's Change of Heart?
If Top Rank re-signs Shakur, they will have to figure out what to do with him because he failed to become the star they hoped he would become after signing him following the 2016 Olympics.
Shakur's boring, safety-first fighting style is one that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum used to talk about when he used to promote Cuban two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux a decade ago. However, Rigondeaux was more fun to watch than Shakur, and it makes one wonder if Arum has run out of patience with uninteresting fighters.
Stevenson vs. Harutyunyan fight date, first time
- Date: Saturday, July 6
- Time: 9pm ET / 2am UK (Sunday)
- Main event ringwalks (approx): 11 pm ET / 4 am UK (Sunday)
- US: Live on ESPN+
- UK: Sky Sports
Full Fight Card:
- Main Event: Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan (WBC Lightweight Title)
- Featurette: O'Shaquie Foster vs. Robson Conceição (WBC Junior Lightweight Title)
- Television Kickoff: Keyshawn Davis vs. Miguel Madueño (10-Round Lightweight)
- Abdullah Mason vs. Luis Lebron (8-Round Lightweight)
- Damian Knyba vs. Richard Lartey (8-Round Heavyweight)
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