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Nobody questions Shakur Stevenson’s boxing capacity.
The 135-pound title contender, who fights Edwin De Los Santos on Thursday in Las Vegas (ESPN, ESPN+), may be the very best technician since Floyd Mayweather was at his peak. That might imply the 26-year-old from New Jersey is on his approach to changing into a generational champion.
However how does Stevenson evaluate to these on the high of the pound-for-pound lists proper now? Is he pretty much as good as anybody else?
Nicely, instances will be made for and in opposition to. Listed below are the arguments.
FOR
Who’s a greater pure boxer than Stevenson?
Terence Crawford? “Bud” may be a more-complete fighter however it will be tough to separate his technical capacity from Stevenson’s. The identical goes for Naoya Inoue, one other nice all-around fighter. Gervonta Davis? Take away Davis’ energy from the equation and Stevenson might have an edge.
That’s why Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) has dominated virtually each second of each spherical of each battle. Few if any can match his mixture of pure items and realized expertise, together with velocity, reflexes and athleticism.
The southpaw controls distance with glorious footwork and a stiff jab, which permits him to choose aside his foes and document one-sided victories. And he’s most likely higher defensively than he’s offensively, that means he’s subsequent to unimaginable to hit cleanly.
It’s typically mentioned that the sport slows down for the very best NFL quarterbacks when they’re in a groove, which permits them to excel. Boxing slows down for Stevenson.
Take into account stats supplied by CompuBox. Stevenson is within the Prime Two in all of boxing in 5 key statistical classes, primary in two of them. Take a look:
Plus / Minus (the proportion of punches he lands vs. these he takes)
- Stevenson, +20.3; David Benavidez, +18.3; Dmitry Bivol, +17.3; Vasiliy Lomachenko, +16.8; Gervonta Davis, +14.4.
Energy punch join proportion
- Davis, 47.7; Stevenson, 47.2; Zhilei Zhang, 46.9; Benavidez, 46.8; Lomachenko, 46.6.
Opponents complete punches landed per spherical (fewest)
- Demetrius Andrade, 5.4; Stevenson, 5.5; Bivol, 5.9; Chris Eubank Jr., 6.1; Anthony Joshua, 6.4.
Opponents complete join proportion (lowest)
- Bivol, 12.4; Stevenson, 13.4; Andrade, 17.9; Brian Castano, 18.1; Kazuto Ioka, 18.4.
Opponents energy punch join proportion (lowest)
- Stevenson, 16.9; Bivol, 21.9; Andrade, 23.1; Benavidez, 25; Ioka, 25.4.
CompuBox statistics are unofficial, after all. Nonetheless, the development indicated in these numbers means that Stevenson is pretty much as good as anybody on the artwork of hitting and never getting hit.
He may be the very best.
AGAINST
Stevenson may be missing in two regards, one which may very well be resolved over time and one with which he may be caught.
Stevenson is a younger fighter who’s simply beginning to construct his resume, which makes it tough to attract definitive conclusions about his capacity. He has a number of necessary victories – Joet Gonzalez, Jamel Herring and, most notably, Oscar Valdez – however he has but to face a top-tier opponent.
That’s why he’s No. 13 on Boxing Junkie’s pound-for-pound checklist and never but within the Prime 10 in different respected rankings despite the fact that he aces the attention check battle after battle.
If he finally fights and defeats the likes of Davis, Lomachenko, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez, you may guess that he’ll crack everybody’s Prime 10 and proceed his fast ascent within the eyes of pundits and followers alike.
A deficiency which may by no means be resolved is Stevenson’s relative lack of punching energy.
Not all nice fighters are large punchers. For instance, neither Muhammad Ali nor Floyd Mayweather had been knockout artists. Nonetheless, they’re two of the best boxers of all time, legends who didn’t want to harm opponents to dominate them
Stevenson hasn’t wanted crushing energy both nevertheless it may come in useful in opposition to subsequent stage opposition. That’s one factor that units Davis aside from the remaining. “Tank” is a superb boxer who may also finish any battle instantly.
The truth is Stevenson doesn’t have that weapon. Neither do Haney, Lomachenko and Lopez, which arguably leaves all of them a step behind Davis.
Who is aware of, although? Possibly Stevenson received’t want uncommon energy to turn into the very best within the enterprise. Once more, it’s victories that depend ultimately.
“Inform all the opposite lightweights to prepare,” he mentioned after stopping Shuichiro Yoshino in April, his most up-to-date battle. “I’m ready for them. I can’t look forward to them to complete the fights that they’ve occurring. Then it’s my flip.”
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