Shakur Stevenson's Future At Lightweight Uncertain After Injury

Shakur Stevenson showed that his surgically repaired right hand was functioning at full strength today in a bag workout. He recently suffered a right-hand injury training for his fight against Joe Cordina., and had to cancel the match to have surgery.

Shakur’s Hand Problems

It will be interesting to see how long Shakur can go before he comes up lame again with another hand injury and needs another round of surgery. He’s fast becoming a sickbay commando with all his ailments, and he’s only 27. Shakur just isn’t cut out to be a lightweight.

He can’t make the grade physically, and he won’t be able to make a career out of using amateur fencing style against the top fighters at 135. To exist at lightweight, you have actually to fight and not run around the ring playing tag. That’s likely why Shakur is having such a hard time getting the top names to fight him.

The judges aren’t going to give Shakur the benefit of the doubt like they did in his fight against Edwin De Los Santos, which he should have lost. If the crowds are booing nonstop from the third round, the judges aren’t going to keep giving Shakur wins.

Top Rank might be thanking their lucky stars that Shakur chose not to re-up for another hitch with their company and has become Eddie Hearn’s problem at Matchroom.

Power Needed To Fight At 135

Stevenson’s brittle hands have been failing him since he moved up to lightweight, and it could be that his body can’t handle fighting in this weight class.

Fighters are expected to possess power at 135, and if they weren’t blessed in that department the way Gervonta Davis, Abdullah Mason, and William Zepeda, they’ve got to load up with every ounce of energy they have. That’s what Shakur has been doing; his hands can’t take it. They’re not built for lightweight.

Assuming Shakur doesn’t suffer a setback with his fragile hands, he’s going to have to get an opponent for the February 22nd card in Riyadh.

William Zepeda doesn’t appear to be interested in fighting Shakur, and it’s believed that he’s targeting a fight against WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis. That’s the money fight for Zepeda, so why he’d want to go in that direction instead of fighting Shakur is understandable.

Options for Shakur’s Next Fight

– Edwin De Los Santos
– Andy Cruz
– Raymond Muratalla
– Keyshawn Davis
– Floyd Schofield

Eddie Hearn wants to turn Shakur into a global superstar or at least that’s what he says, but if he matches him against any of those fighters, it’s going to end badly.

Even with the judging crew that gave Shakur the victory over De Los Santos last year in November, they won’t be able to control the booing from the fans. They give Shakur another controversial win, but the booing will be there more than ever if he faces one of those guys.

What’s interesting is how big Shakur is looking. He’s put on weight since his last fight on July 6th against Artem Harutyunyan and appears to be a filled-out welterweight. He’s going to need to lose a whole bunch of weight if he wants to return to 135.

I don’t know what Shakur has been eating in the last five months to put on so much weight, but he needs to stay away from that food.

Shakur has always been huge for every weight class he’s fought since turning pro, but he’s massive for the 135-lb division. As big as he is, he should be competing at 147 against fighters like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

Obviously, Shakur, 27, would be at a power disadvantage going up against Boots Ennis, but if he’s as good as he and his fans believe, he should be able to fight against guys his own size at welterweight.

Shakur has not performed well in two of the three fights he’s had since moving up to 135 in 2023. He struggled against these two fighters: Edwin De Los Santos and Artem Harutyunyan.