Abdullah Mason’s demeanor outside of the ring and his style inside it couldn’t be more different.
Inside the ring, Mason is aggressive to a fault and possesses a venomous, viper-like straight left hand. His record, 18-0 (16 KOs), is indicative of his fearsome power; having racked up those numbers at just 21 years of age is indicative of his fearsome potential. He likes a brawl, most demonstrated by his off-the-deck win in November over Yohan Vasquez – mere seconds after Vasquez dropped Mason in the first round and subsequently rocked him again, Vasquez was the one on the floor. Mason is a buzzsaw in the ring, and he’s yet to find an opponent he couldn’t cut through easily.
In conversation, though, Mason is an affable man of few words. Maybe it’s shyness that is natural in young adulthood, or maybe it’s awareness that his sensational fights do all the necessary talking.
“I’m just waiting for the championship level,” Mason told BoxingScene. “135 is a division I’m ready to make a lot of noise in right now. Anybody at the top, I’ve got my eye on them. All the champions: Keyshawn Davis, Shakur Stevenson, [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ Davis, Raymond Muratalla is now a world champion … I’m ranked 4 in WBC and 6 in WBO, so I’m right there. I’m right there.”
Mason is due to fight Jeremia Nakathila, 26-4 (21 KOs) on June 7 in the co-main event to Keyshawn Davis-Edwin De Los Santos.
“He's a good step up, he’s a hard-hitter. He let his right hand go, he let his punches go,” Mason said respectfully of his opponent, before allowing himself to look past Nakathila: “He’s just next in line ’til I get to that world championship.”
Mason, who was born in Bedford, Ohio, and is a resident of Cleveland, has been consistently active during his ascent – Nakathila will be his third fight in 2025 and eighth since the start of 2024. As such, his camps are fluid. Mason rarely leaves the gym, and he, his father/head trainer, and brother identify areas for him to improve based on his recent fights.
“We take a little from all the previous camps, and we put it together,” Mason said.
The fight against Vasquez, in which Mason hit the canvas twice in the first round, is the defining moment thus far in his career. That night, Mason demonstrated a tough chin and thick skin alongside some reckless offense that got him in trouble. Boxing is somewhat obsessed with knockdowns; when a fighter gets dropped, broadcasters invariably mention how many times they’ve been felled in their careers. Terence Crawford’s uncalled knockdown from Egis Kavaliauskas' right hand is still the impetus for increasingly deranged arguments, emanating from the most dank corners of the Internet, that Crawford is overrated.
So you’d forgive Mason if he were a little tired of people bringing up the Vasquez fight. He isn’t, though.
“I’ve had two fights after that, and ’til right now, that’s the biggest fight that’s made the most noise in my career so far. I feel like it showed a lot of good that I had, a lot of adjustments that I did … it was something that was needed and something that the people loved to see. It made me better as a fighter for sure.”
What it also showed was Mason’s propensity for wildly entertaining fights.
“I wouldn’t say I try to be an entertaining fighter,” he said. “I go in there and I get the job done. I do what I know I have to do. I’m a fighter that critiques myself, so when I step in there I want to do things the way I want to do it. It’s definitely entertaining. Because I fight what’s comfortable to me, that naturally comes out in an entertaining way.”
The philosophy is fascinating – boxers tend to get the blame for their less gripping bouts, but as Mason tells it, fighting style is closer to an instinct than a choice. Regardless, when he was told that it’s difficult to imagine him taking part in a fight as airless as those on the May 2 Times Square card, Mason gave a knowing little laugh.
If his track record is any indication, Mason-Nakathila will be another thriller. After that, Mason hopes to get a title shot “at the end of this year,” against “anybody who’s willing to give me the opportunity.”
Mason has sparred with Stevenson and has a collegial relationship with the WBC lightweight titleholder, but he attests that “the only people I’d never fight are my blood brothers.” So count Stevenson-Mason more likely to happen than Stevenson-Keyshawn Davis.
“Tell the fans – let me know who they want me to fight. They gotta put it out there, so I can see what they say.”