Heavyweight puncher Raphael Akperjiori knows he could have his hands full on Saturday night against Stephan Shaw.
The 34-year-old Nigerian, who lives in Florida, meets Shaw at the Maryland Live Casino in Hanover on ProBox TV, and hopes to build on his impressive 18-1 (17 KOs) record.
Shaw, however, is 20-2 (15 KOs), and oozing confidence.
Akperjiori, who is trained by former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson, played basketball at a good level and then switched to football, even trialling with the Miami Dolphins.
But injury derailed his career in other sports and he gravitated toward boxing.
“Boxing started out of necessity to be something, or to do something,” he explained. “And while I was in the gym, the coach told me, ‘You’re big, you’re athletic, you’re strong, you seem dedicated, and I think you should pursue this,’ and this is where it’s got me.”
But it was the aforementioned Johnson who changed his direction. After 14 amateur fights in a year, Akperjiori (pictured right) was told by Johnson that he would get more out of sparring pros than having amateur fights, and he was soon doing rounds with Filip Hrgovic and Bakhodir Jalolov.
“Basically, I went to the fire,” Akperjiori recalled. “Every Saturday was just a session where my head would get beat up, those guys lighted me up. Every amateur fighter that just came back from the Olympics, they just had this big, tall punching bag they were just working with and just teeing off on, and with that I learnt how to survive, and with that I learnt how to fight and that’s how my career started.”
And Akperjiori added speed, strength, and conditioning, and was on a roll until the lone loss of his career, which came when he was stopped by Arslenbak Makhmudov in July 2023. That taught him he needed to find another level again.
But he won’t be finding his way gently against Shaw.
“There’s a saying in boxing, go in and establish your jab,” he said. “Glen Johnson seems to say otherwise, ‘Go in and establish your punches’. So when I go in and establish the punches it’s going to be a fight from the first round until you feel like quitting, whenever you feel like opening up your chin for me to hit. So that’s my mentality.”
Still, Akperjiori refuses to dine out on his record. He says his toughest opponent is the next one, and he steadfastly believes Shaw is better than each of his knockout victims.
“None of those guys are at Stephan Shaw’s level,” he admitted. “[Shaw’s] a extremely skilled and highly respected opponent. All the fundamentals are there and every heavyweight can crack.”
But Akperjiori is not in the sport to waste his or anyone else’s time.
“If I can’t beat him, I don’t believe I belong in boxing,” he said.