Shakur Stevenson ends news conference ends after brawl erupts
From the day he turned professional, this kind of performance from Shakur Stevenson was inevitable. He’s the type of man who can dominate boxing for a decade or extra. He understands the sport at a degree few do. He’s blazingly fast, extremely conditioned and unnaturally calm.
Oscar Valdez by no means had an opportunity towards Stevenson of their bout Saturday for the WBC and WBO tremendous featherweight titles earlier than a full of life, typically raucous, crowd of 10,102 on the MGM Grand Backyard. Stevenson gained a unanimous choice by scores of 118-109 twice and 117-110 that was even simpler for him than the huge playing cards would point out.
He dumped Valdez within the sixth and managed to neutralize Valdez’s vaunted energy. Valdez got here into the bout 30-0 with 23 knockouts, however he hardly ever hit Stevenson clear with something.
“He’s a fantastic fighter,” Valdez mentioned of Stevenson. “His velocity is there. Energy is there. He was simply the higher fighter tonight. General, a fantastic fighter.”
Stevenson saved a jab in Valdez’s face from the opening moments. He didn’t “run,” as many within the Valdez camp had derisively predicted he would. As a substitute, he boxed superbly, controlling the vary, hitting Valdez with almost every thing he threw and placing collectively the type of masterpiece few on this sport are able to authoring.
Stevenson linked on an astounding 53 p.c of his energy pictures and held Valdez to 29 p.c.
His supervisor, James Prince, beforehand managed Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward, two fighters who completed undefeated and who will likely be inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame in June. There may be a whole lot of Mayweather and Ward in Stevenson.
He’s not at their degree but, however he’s solely 24 and neither Mayweather nor Ward had been almost a completed product at that age. However Prince has seen loads of nice fighters in his 20-plus years in boxing and he is aware of Stevenson is about to affix that listing.
“The sky is the restrict,” Prince mentioned of Stevenson. “All people who will get in entrance of him goes to have an issue.”
Stevenson’s greatest problem on Saturday was on the post-fight information convention. He started with out his belts, and needed to ask somebody from his workforce to ship them to him. Then, he shouted on the crowd on the facet to cool down so he might hear the questions.
Then, in a weird scene, there was a commotion to the left of the dais. Stevenson’s mom tried to get into the information convention and safety wouldn’t enable her into the room.
Stevenson was answering a query when he turned to his left, stared intently towards the door and listened for a number of seconds, after which sprinted off the stage and out the door of the ballroom the place the information convention was being held. A combat ensued within the on line casino hallway exterior the ballroom, and Stevenson was in the course of it attempting to get his relations out of it.
Prince instructed Yahoo Sports activities by way of textual content that Stevenson and his mom had been high-quality. An MGM Grand spokesman mentioned he was making an attempt to assemble extra info and reserved remark till he did so.
At his greatest second, on the evening he turned a unified champion, he solely answered a handful of questions earlier than abruptly leaving.
He misplaced his second within the solar due to it, although he was sensible sufficient within the ring earlier than a nationwide viewers on ESPN that his phrases at a information convention gained’t be missed.
Stevenson was beaming when he acquired to the information convention as a result of he knew that he’d placed on the efficiency of his life in his greatest second. He largely shut up the closely pro-Valdez crowd that was so exuberant earlier than and in the course of the early phases of the combat.
“That was an unimaginable crowd and so they noticed an unimaginable efficiency by a superb fighter,” mentioned Prime Rank president Todd duBoef, who mentioned he wasn’t positive what was subsequent for Stevenson.
On the undercard, Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis was spectacular in stopping Esteban Sanchez within the sixth. He appeared in awe of what Stevenson had achieved.
“Shakur’s come a good distance, man,” mentioned Davis, who could be boxing’s subsequent huge celebrity. “Shakur gained nearly each spherical and Oscar principally by no means touched him.”
It’s going to take an entire fighter, one who has velocity and the power to chop off the ring, to offer Stevenson a lot of a tussle. He’s already probably the greatest fighters on the earth and he’s simply getting higher on a regular basis.
“Simply so, so spectacular,” promoter Bob Arum mentioned of Stevenson. “Unimaginable, actually.”
The identical might be mentioned of the scene that compelled Stevenson to flee the information convention.
However even that couldn’t detract from what was a superb evening for the now unified champion from Newark, New Jersey.
