By Robert Segal: Shakur Stevenson says fans are in for a “surprise” when they see him in his fight against Edwin De Los Santos next week in their twelve round headliner on ESPN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
During an interview, Shakur apologized to fans, which was interpreted to mean that he regretted turning down the 75-25 offer from undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney.
It was nice to see Stevenson admitting that he’d ducked the fight with Haney, as he’d been lashing out at him, which fans never understood because he’d been given the opportunity and turned it down.
It took a lot for Shakur to swallow his pride and admit that he’d blown his chance to become a superstar by rejecting the offer from Haney.
Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) seems to be hinting that he’s going to look to make it exciting by getting in the trenches with the powerful southpaw knockout artist De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs) in there for the vacant WBC lightweight title.
Top Rank has a guy who would appear to have a better superstar potential than Shakur in Raymond Muratalla, who is more powerful and has a fan-friendly style.
Muratalla is someone they can market to the public, and his fights will sell because he has an exciting style, they wouldn’t have to try and encourage him to mix it up to have box office appeal because he’s already got that aspect of his game covered.
Some boxing fans believe that Shakur isn’t focused on the De Los Santos fight, as he’s spent the build-up talking nonstop about Devin Haney, criticizing himself constantly for not fighting him, even though it was he who rejected the 75-25 purse split offer.
De Los Santos has the kind of power to knockout Stevenson if he’s overlooked him because he’s not the type of fighter that Shakur can afford to look past. This is a fighter that this going to be going all out to score a knockout because he’s got to know that his chances of winning a decision are slim, so he’ll be swinging for the fences.
If the rumors are true about Shakur getting badly hurt in sparring by Liam Paro in camp, he needs to have his mind right for the De Los Santos and not think about the big fish that got away. Stevenson has sounded obsessed with Haney and can’t forget about the fight not materializing for him.
Shakur’s chin needs to be intact for the De Los Santos fight because if there are remnants of him getting knocked out by the hard-hitting Paro in camp, De Los Santos will finish the job.
It would be a good idea for Shakur to try and entertain the fans, as he could shoot himself in the foot if he fights defensively against De Los Santos by performing as we saw from his fights with Jeremiah Nakathilia, Oscar Valdez, Jamel Herring, Joet Gonzalez, and Robson Conceicao.
“I hope the fans come out and full support. I just hope it’s a good outcome with the fans and everybody is paying attention to me because I plan on putting on a great show,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype about his November 16th fight against Edwin De Los Santos.
“I don’t know how the fight is going to go. I think I’m going to surprise a lot of people. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole career. On fight night, I’ll be doing what I’ve been consistently doing, and that’s been dominating.”
It’ll be a shock to boxing fans if Shakur abandons his cautious approach and chooses to stand in the pocket on November 16th to mix it up with De Los Santos. For Shakur’s sake, he needs to do that, considering he’s NEVER going to be a superstar in the dull fighting style that he uses now.
There are many more entertaining fighters in the 135-lb division, like Muratalla, William Zepeda, Frank Martin, Isaac Cruz, and Gervonta Davis.
“That’s what I look to do every fight. I look to dominate. I don’t look for close fights. So I’m coming to surprise everybody,” said Shakur.
It’s not going to be a surprise if Shakur uses his normal pot shot style against De Los Santos because fans want to see him stand in the pocket and be willing to risk getting knocked out to make it exciting.
Given that this fight is taking place during Formula 1 Grand Prix week in Las Vegas, it’s key that Shakur changes his style for this bout because there will be a lot of non-boxing fans tuning in on ESPN, and he could turn them into his followers if he goes to war with De Los Santos.
“I’m going in there to be myself. I’m not worried about anything else,” said Shakur when asked if he’ll be looking for a knockout against De Los Santos. “All that matters is I please myself. At the end of the night, I want to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Okay, that was a great performance.
“I can’t control what others do and the higher powers. I can only control myself. I’m showing up on fight night 100% ready,” said Shakur. “I might make Thursday night great again.
“Edwin De Los Santos is someone who has been calling my name. He’s been pulling a me on me. I respect it, but now I got to answer the phone call. He called me out and went to my city and made a video. He kind of said my name in it, and he was calling me out. I don’t take it personally. I’m just ready to beat him up for it,” said Shakur.
