WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson 22-0 (10) has only one threat to his supremacy at 135-pounds.
That comes in the form of WBA counterpart Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 30-0 (28).
Newark southpaw Stevenson, 27, is fresh off a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Germany’s Artem Harutyunyan 12-2 (7) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday night.
The fight was his last under the Top Rank banner. Stevenson is currently a promotional free agent.
The former WBO featherweight and WBO and WBC super featherweight champion insists he wants the big names in the 135-pound weight class and that includes Baltimore southpaw Davis, 29.
That’s the guy ESPN’s Tim Bradley wants to see Stevenson face too.
“The only guy that I think can give Shakur a run for his money is Tank,” Bradley said. “The only guy, man. ‘Cause his IQ is right there with him and he got that power, that one punch power to end the fight.
“If he catch Shakur bro, Shakur ain’t never been hit, but if he catches him bro, it could be it.
“But Shakur’s going to make sure that don’t happen and that’s the concentration that he has, he’s going to have the concentration all night and he’s going to take limited chances.
“It’s going to be a boring ass fight but Shakur should be able to pick it off. And if Tank starts to rush in and starts to get ahead of himself, Shakur going to pick him apart.
“But, again, Tank got that timing, he got every punch in the arsenal, it’s going to be a difficult fight for Shakur but I still think Shakur can get him.”
Stevenson lost that crowd on Saturday night with his safety-first performance, with many at ringside leaving before the final bell.
It comes off the back of his decision win over Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos 16-2 (14) in Las Vegas last November, a fight that was only memorable for the lack of punches thrown.
“But I don’t care his performance wasn’t a performance tonight, it is what it is. He did what he had to do against this dude, made him look like a rookie in my opinion,” Bradley said of the Harutyunyan fight.
“For market value, for entertainment value, of course you want him to stop him because that’s what people like to see. He could’ve but again, he missed his opportunity, it was a window right there, six, seven, he had it right there and then he didn’t turn it up.
“His grandfather was telling him ‘hey, turn it up, turn it up’… but he got to start cutting off the ring a lot better and he got to start putting combinations together. And Shakur is defensive minded, he don’t want to take no punches.”
