WBC lightweight champion Shakur ‘Fearless’ Stevenson 21-0 (10) believes Frank ‘The Ghost’ Martin 18-0 (12) will be out of his depth when he challenges WBA 135-pound titleholder Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 29-0 (27) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 15.
Newark, New Jersey southpaw Stevenson, 26, has a vested interest in the result. He has long coveted a shot at fellow lefty and Baltimore, Maryland native Davis, 29.
“The way I look at that fight, it’s levels,” Stevenson said on Sean Zittel’s YouTube channel.
“There are levels to the fight. Tank is going to go in there and figure him out, figure out that he’s really not on his level and then he’s going to annihilate him and feel like he’s on the top of the world because he annihilated somebody that is C-level.
“I think he fought better fighters than Frank. Honestly, I see Frank – and I’m not trying to disrespect Frank because I heard him say in an interview that I’m hating on him. I’m really not. I don’t really got nothing to hate on him, but the levels.
“He started [boxing] at 17-years-old. 15, whatever it is. He clearly started late. He’s like a behind fighter. So he’s got to catch up to all the years that we’ve been putting in since youngsters like. I don’t think there’s any way he can do it.
The former WBO featherweight and WBC and WBO super featherweight champion added: “I think the only chance he had, which is everybody in the sport of boxing has, is a puncher’s chance. But that would depend on luck and I don’t see that happening.”
Stevenson’s next career move could very well dictate whether he gets the chance to prove he is better than Davis. Next month he becomes a promotional free agent and will no doubt have a suite of suitors, including his current promoter Top Rank.
“No, we haven’t talked to the PBC about Gervonta Davis because of Shakur’s contract with us,” said Top Rank’s Bob Arum to FightHype. “So we’re going to see if they’re going to do an extension with us and then we’re certainly happy to talk to them about Gervonta Davis.
“If he does re-sign, we have some really interesting fights for him, but I’m not going to go into that because right now. He’s a free agent after July 6th. He’s been a great fighter. We’ve enjoyed promoting him and we’ll see what happens down the line.”
Stevenson is scheduled to make the first defence of his lightweight belt against Artem Harutyunyan 12-1 (7) at the Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey on July 6.
Germany’s Harutyunyan, 33, is coming off a a close unanimous points loss to Martin in Las Vegas last July.
The Ring rates Stevenson the fourth-best boxer in the world at 135-pounds behind Vasiliy Lomachenko, Davis and William Zepeda. The 29-year-old Martin is ranked fifth.
