By Jake Donovan

For the second straight year, Curtis Stevens was dealt a loss in a fight with major title implications. Less than a year after suffering a knockout loss at the lethal fists of Gennady Golovkin, the Brooklyn brawler was outpointed by Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in their middleweight title eliminator.

While he’s not quite yet ready to call it a career in boxing, Stevens is taking a brief hiatus from the traditional side of the sport to give Big Knockout Boxing (BKB) a try. He makes his debut in this market on April 4 when he faces reigning BKB middleweight champion Gabriel Rosado, who scored a knockout win over Bryan Vera in the league’s inaugural event last August.

There are significant differences between traditional boxing and BKB; rounds are two minutes long in the latter, and its ring is an actual ring – a 17’ circle with no ropes.

Stevens is ready to go all in for the event, though in embracing the change also felt the need to bring in fresh eyes for his current training camp. The middleweight has enlisted the services of former three-division champion Shane Mosley, who met up with Stevens following his loss to N’Dam.

“To tell you the truth, after my last fight—I knew Shane for quite a while.  After my last fight, he came in the back and just was telling me, he see(s) where I was having problems and he offered a helping hand,” Stevens revealed of how the two hooked up. “So, I’d be a fool not take on a helping hand from a future Hall of Famer and Sugar Shane Mosley. So, I just took him and he just got it to work.”

Prior to this camp, Stevens has worked exclusively with his uncle, Andre Rozier. In adding Mosley to his team, now comes expertise from the perspective of a former fighter.

“He’s showing me different aspects, different things that I stopped doing and bringing it back,” Stevens reveals of his transformation. “He’s a fighter. He’s been in the ring. So, things that my uncle could have showed me, Shane has shown me because he’s been in the right for numerous years and been fighting as a pro. So, it’s just different that he’s been in there.”

The upcoming showdown with Rosado takes place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, with the event to air live via Pay-Per-View.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox