Roadblock To Riches: Shakur Stevenson’s Worries About Gervonta Davis’s Upcoming Bout With Lamont Roach

Shakur Stevenson has “worries” about whether Gervonta Davis will win his rematch with Lamont Roach on August 16th. Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) has a self-serving concern: He wants his mega-money fight against Tank Davis, which can’t happen if he loses the rematch with Roach. It’ll leave Shakur with limited options.

Impact of Tank Upset

Shakur has said a fight between him and Gervonta is “The biggest fight in boxing.” If Davis loses to Roach, Shakur will need to go in a different direction because the Tank fight will no longer have the interest it once did. The vultures are already circling Stevenson at 135, viewing him as food. His brittle hands make him vulnerable prey for the top fighters.

“I know that me and Tank is the big fight, so it worries me in the fact that I don’t get my opportunity to fight him as an undefeated fighter with Lamont Roach in front of him,” said Shakur Stevenson to Ring Magazine about his nervousness about gervonta Davis potentially losing to Lamont Roach in their rematch and then never getting a chance to fight him. “But we’ll see. Maybe he does go in there and make it an easy fight.”

Well, if Tank Davis loses to Roach in their rematch on August 16th, it’s not the end of the world. It would just mean that Shakur might have to wait until they fight a trilogy. A third Davis-Roach fight could be staged in November or December. In the meantime, Stevenson could fight one of the top contenders, like Andy Cruz, Jadier Herrera, Abdullah Mason, or Tevin Farmer. Those are all tough fights, but if Shakur is “the best fighter in boxing” like he always says, he should be able to beat all those guys.

“It’s a great fight. I think Oscar [De La Hoya] knows [William] Zepeda is really up against it here, but obviously the numbers made sense for them to roll the dice,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about Golden Boy Promotions feeling it was worth it financially to allow the unbeaten William Zepeda to fight Shakur Stevenson on the July 12th card.

On paper, this is an easier fight for Zepeda than his last two contests against Tevin Farmer. Shakur doesn’t possess the size, power, or ruggedness of Farmer. The only thing he does better than Farmer is move, and he moved quite a bit. If Tevin had moved more than he did in those two fights, he would have been booed by the fans.

He did enough to keep the fans from letting him know about it. Farmer is a lot braver a fighter than Shakur, and always has. Zepeda has less to worry about against Shakur than he did in his fights against the hard-hitting Farmer.

Zepeda is Different

“I think without the Ring Magazine or the Riyadh Season, I don’t think this fight [Shakur vs. Zepeda] would have happened, if I’m being honest. But Zepeda is a great fighter. I think style-wise, it’s a great matchup, especially for Shakur Stevenson. He’s a guy that is a tremendous counter-puncher. He obviously likes fighters that come toward him. Zepeda is all action, very aggressive, and throws a huge amount of punches. I think it’s a very good fight.”

Shakur and Hearn could live to regret making this fight with William Zepeda because he’s a much different animal than the best guys that he’s fought during his eight-year pro career. The best guys Stevenson has fought are these fighters:

– Edwin De Los Santos
– Artur Harutyunyan
– Jamel Herring
– Joet Gonzalez
– Oscar Valdez
– Robson Conceicao

That’s a pretty soft bunch when you compare them to the young volume puncher Zepeda. He’s stronger than those fighters and throws many more punches. Unless Shakur plans to run from him all night, he’s got a nightmarish fight ahead of him.

“This is the last fight of our existing deal,” said Hearn about the two-fight contract between Matchroom and Stevenson ending with his fight against Zepeda. “So, we’ll be working from now up until the fight and beyond to try and keep him at Matchroom. Obviously, we’ve got a great relationship,” said Hearn.

Turki Alalshikh will need to help out with the fight against Gervonta Davis because Hearn isn’t likely to invest the money to meet Tank and Shakur’s expectations for this fight. If the fight doesn’t get made, it’s going to be interesting to see who Shakur fights for the remainder of his career at 135. He’s not a big enough puncher to climb the weight classes to 140 and 147.

Stevenson’s Hand Injury Impact

His brittle hands are also a problem. For Shakur to fight against the top-level fighters, he’s got to be able to throw hard enough to make them wary of attacking him aggressively. He can’t do that if he’s protecting his glass hands, and is unable to throw with any power.

“If you said to Shakur, ‘Who do you think is the best promoter in the world and who would you like to be with?’ He would say, ‘Eddie and Matchroom.’ But if we can’t come up with a deal, that would change very quickly. But we definitely have the relationship and the communication to extend that deal, and that’s obviously the plan,” said Hearn.

Whether Shakur stays with Matchroom may boil down to whether they can deliver him the Tank Davis fight. Tank and Conor Benn clashes are the ones that he seems to be most interested in.

Stevenson hasn’t talked about wanting to fight the other top lightweights, Keyshawn Davis, Raymond Muratalla, Andy Cruz, and Abdullah Mason. He’s been very calculated since moving up to 135 in 2023, only pushing for Tank Davis and Vasily Lomachenko. He’s turned down dangerous fights against Jadier Herrera and Ernesto Mercado to fight Josh Padley. It kind of shows you that Shakur doesn’t want to get beaten before he gets the Tank Davis fight.