Shakur Stevenson Aims To Be Bigger Than Floyd Mayweather Jr.

By Miguel Rivera

Olympic silver medal winner Shakur Stevenson is aiming to become even bigger than his idol, former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who retired in September 2015.

Stevenson won an Olympic medal at the 2016 games in Rio. He signed a promotional agreement with Top Rank and he is scheduled to turn pro on April 22 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Stevenson is managed by James Prince and unified light heavyweight champion Andre Ward.

Mayweather had made a big run at Stevenson during the Olympics. Stevenson claims the unbeaten boxer never followed through with a lot of the big talk in signing him to a promotional agreement.

Stevenson's debut will be part of a Top Rank Pay-per-View that features title defenses by Oscar Valdez, Gilberto Ramirez and Jessie Magdaleno.

Stevenson wants to make a big statement in his pro debut, to show that he is a future superstar, and he feels of confident of reaching the same heights at Mayweather and earning those record paydays of 100 million.

"I want to become a legend," Stevenson told ESPN Deportes. "I just want to make a big impression on that day [of my debut], to prove that I have to become a boxing superstar and to do that. I hope to debut with a knockout."

"I want to become a legend in boxing and when I leave this sport I want to leave my name written in the history books, along with Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Floyd Mayweather and boxers of that level. The biggest of all, for me, is Floyd Mayweather. And I aspire to become even bigger than he has been for boxing I expect to earn that kind of money."

"I have a lot of people that inspire me, the ones I see as an example, including Andre Ward, who is my manager. I lost the gold in a very tight fight, which was decided by split decision [to Cuban Robeisy Ramirez]. Since the Games of 2004 in Athens, our country had not secured an Olympic medal, so I think that this silver medal is very important and I consider myself as the boxer who has managed to put our [American] boxing back on the universal map."