Thus far, becoming a unified world champion at 130 pounds has been the crowning achievement in the young career of Shakur Stevenson. However, after failing to strip those final few pounds from his body last year, the former Olympic silver medalist made the decision to move up in weight.
In his first bout as a full-fledged lightweight, Stevenson dissected the porous defense of the unheralded Shuichiro Yoshino en route to a sixth-round stoppage win. Although the boxing world began to corybantic while simultaneously heaping perpetual praise in Stevenson’s direction, Henry Garcia, father of Ryan Garcia, wasn’t impressed one bit. Considering who Stevenson recently faced, the loquacious father doesn’t understand why everyone has become so infatuated with Stevenson’s performance.
“Well, the thing is, you gotta fight somebody that’s known,” said Garcia to FightHype.com recently. “Come on, let's be real here. You gotta fight a live dog.”
More than simply getting his feet wet in a new division, Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) was fighting to move to the front of the championship line. With his effortless victory, Stevenson officially became the mandatory challenger for the winner of the upcoming clash between Vasiliy Lomachenko and undisputed lightweight kingpin, Devin Haney.
As the pound-for-pound star now plays the waiting game, Garcia is flummoxed as to what has just happened. Prior to Yoshino making the trek to Stevenson’s backyard, the 31-year-old never competed outside of his hometown of Japan.
Currently, the 135-pound landscape is packed to the brim with countless high-quality fighters. From the likes of Jamaine Ortiz to Issac Cruz, Garcia believes that Stevenson could have chosen a much better foe.
To Stevenson’s credit, however, he attempted to secure bouts with several top names in the lightweight division, including Cruz, only to be turned down. Be that as it may, Garcia concludes that no matter how difficult it actually is to secure a bout against one of the division’s mainstays, Stevenson must do whatever it takes before he’s allowed to fight for all of the lightweight marbles.
“For them to say he has mandatory over Haney and Loma, come on. Enough is enough, fight somebody that’s tough. Fight somebody that’s earned their spot.”