Shakur Stevenson retained his WBC lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Artem Harutyunyan on Saturday night in front of Shakur’s hometown crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
Now undefeated (22-0), Stevenson was a heavy favorite to win this fight and justified that prediction by dominating the fight, particularly the later rounds. Fighting in front of his hometown fans, he and his team had envisioned a big event that would entertain the crowd.
Unfortunately, the fight wasn’t as thrilling as they had hoped.
“It’s kind of hard to prove you’re the best if you don’t have a fighter trying to fight back; he’s just trying to survive,” said Stevenson to the critics who said it was a boring, one-sided fight that saw Shakur land 170 total punches to Harutyunyan’s 74.
Some fans actually exited the arena before the fight was over, a fact Stevenson lashed out at, calling the exodus a premeditated move orchestrated by some who didn’t want to see him succeed.
The lopsided event also resulted in Stevenson getting into a beef with Cam’ron and Mase, who have mercilessly ripped the young star after he lashed out at them on social media.
“I know you don’t want no ATM battle,” said Mase on an IG post after Stevenson posted the Harlem rapper had a “failed [rap] career.”
So where does the young fighter go from here?
To be fair, Shakur has done well on television. His fight on Saturday was the most watched fight ESPN has aired in 2024, averaging almost 1.2 viewers. The last three fights to reach a million on the network have all been Stevenson fights, as well.
