Promoter Bob Arum is dismissing Shakur Stevenson's comments about his belief that he was protecting Vassily Lomachenko based on him not intentionally making the fight to avoid being beaten.
Arum points out that fighters have a say in why they want to fight, and it's not up to them to decide.
Shakur's frustration
Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs), the WBC lightweight champion, was upset with Arum's decision to fight IBF champion Lomachenko, who was in the same stable as Top Rank.
Shakur felt that Arum should have given Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr. after moving up to the lightweight division in 2023. However, instead of Stevenson getting those two fights at 135, he was matched up against these fighters:
– Artem Harutyunyan
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Shuichiro Yoshino
Most fans agree that Shakur did not perform well in his last two fights against Harutyunyan and De Los Santos, which shows that he is a boring fighter who lacks power, is afraid to engage, and does not have the right amount of talent to be a PPV attraction.
“These guys like him don't see that other fighters have a say in things. He paints a picture – everybody's a puppet but him, like I can fight any fight I want,” Bob Arum wrote for FightsATW, referring to Shakur Stevenson.
“Listening to friends and strangers online doesn't help Shakur because those people have their own agendas and don't know the realities of fighting for big prizes,” Arum continued. “He has good people around him. But the people 'on the street' who talk to him don't understand.”
Suggestion on Departure
Some believe that Shakur's decision to start hinting at leaving Top Rank immediately after moving up to 135 in 2023 backfired, leading him to give him unpopular fights against Yoshino, De Los Santos, and Harutyunyan. We will never know for sure.
In retrospect, Shakur should have remained silent and failed to reveal that he wanted to leave Top Rank when his contract was up. If Shakur had kept his mouth shut praising Top Rank, would he have gotten the fights he wanted?
Lomachenko was open about not having any interest in fighting Shakur after watching his match against Edwin De Los Santos, and so was Tank Davis. Shakur has hurt his chances in the big fights with the way he fought De Los Santos, which attracted fans, and the injury excuse he made after the fight sounds like he's doing it wrong.
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