Comments Thread For: Shakur Stevenson on Naoya Inoue: "He's a Helluva Fighter, Tell Him Come Up and Fight Me"

[messi807]

Bud is currently still at 147 his third weight class, and he hasn't even fought a match at 154 yet (I believe he will end up there soon, but as of right now he hasn't). Unless you are giving him credit for his "willingness to go up to 168" aka his "willingness to go fight Canelo at 168 for an obvious loss coupled with a retirement check for the bank", as of right now he's currently gone up 12 pounds at age 36. He won his first belt at lightweight at age 26. A year later at age 27, he won his second belt at light welterweight, and stayed there until age 30 when he got undisputed. He then went up to welterweight on his next match at age 31, and has been there since then since 2018.

Inoue is currently at 122 his fourth weight class, having already gone up 14 pounds so far at age 30. At this point, claiming that Inoue could fight a few matches at 130 on his tail end of his career is more realistic than saying Bud is willing to (actually) fight at 168.

Bud will be at 154 next fight.. that's 19lbs. I don't know about 168, but 160. maybe. potentially 25lbs..but as of right now 19. Outside Fulton I can't really say Inoue beat the best 'world class' guys in the divisions he's been in. The Chocalito's, Casimero's, Estrada's etc - not sure why any of those fights happened.

[megas30]

Yes, but this would be the equivalent of Floyd calling out Israel Vasquez before he fought Gatti

Yes, but let's not pretend that he isn't calling out people around his weight and higher, too. He is just desperately hungry and that sometimes makes you look in all directions for a meal.

[Mr Riatonon]

Come up? Shakur wants it easy as always just to make himself look good. Why don't you go down and challenge him.

[Elheath]

Bud will be at 154 next fight.. that's 19lbs. I don't know about 168, but 160. maybe. potentially 25lbs..but as of right now 19. Outside Fulton I can't really say Inoue beat the best 'world class' guys in the divisions he's been in. The Chocalito's, Casimero's, Estrada's etc - not sure why any of those fights happened.

Because literally until he got up to 118 and started to rake in money no one wanted to fight him for unification.

Inoue got his first belt back in 2014 at age 20 on his 6th match as a pro, but couldn't secure a unification fight so he ended up jumping directly to 115 where Narvarez who had a belt at the time was willing to fight him a year later. As a result the Chocolatito/Estrada didn't happen, but instead he knocked out Narvaez at R2 on his first match at 115 to get his second belt. However possibly as a result of his stunning debut at 115, he couldn't get a unification to save his life afterward. He ended up staying at 115 for three years doing seven defenses in the mean time, until he decided to go up to bantam and go for a third division instead of wait for an unification match that didn't seem to happen. In 2018 he went up and fought McDonnell then won WBSS and came out with two belts, fought Donaire again for the third, and ended up getting Butler for the undisputed because shortly before that Casimero due to his problem got stripped of the belt. Which comes down too...

Casimero unification was supposed to happen on April 2020 until COVID cancelled it. Inoue would still have fought Casimero when he went for bantam undisputed, as after Donaire on June 2022 for third belt he would've gone for Casimero's belt. However in April of 2022 Casimero got his belt stripped and Butler got it, and Casimero went up to 122 leaving Inoue to end up fighting Butler instead. As a result after clearing out 118 Inoue went immediately up to 122, because there literally was no one left that was enticing in 118.

At 122 after destroying the no. 1 ranked guy as a starter, he is going to go undisputed then plan to take out MJ/Nery/Casimero before going up. Tapales is only getting a chance because MJ somehow lost to him a few month before Fulton match, and just to show he still could've gotten undisputed even if Tapales didn't luck out. Casimero and Nery are more of a personal grudge combined with the best of whats left in 122, and not sure if Goodman will get a chance, but if he wins an eliminater he might get a match too.

Only worry I have is that Casimero looked rather unimpressive against Oguni and might have fallen down the priority rankings.

[Boxfan83]

These "elite technicians" have a long history of pulling fighters up. Clout chasers.

[Elheath]

These "elite technicians" have a long history of pulling fighters up. Clout chasers.

Playing devil's advocate I do feel sorry for Shakur tho, he certainly is getting ducked a lot, but that is also his fault for not taking Haney's undisputed belts when given the chance.

[dan_cov]

Shameful.

Shakur and Tank calling out a dude 3 divisions smaller, pathetic.
How about fighting each other instead?

[JakeTheBoxer]

If the guys 3 divisions bigger than you call you out, than you are really a badass.

How about Stevenson -Tank, for the start?

[Hitmon]

Unfortunely it will only be a dream

His trainer said Inoue’s dream fight was Tank

[deathofaclown]

Lol people thinking Inoue is ever going to move up to 135

The guy is tiny. He isn't even big at 122, he's fighting there because he's ran through 118, not because he can't make 118.

People saying Manny was a flyweight, yeah when he was about 17 and he clearly has a frame that can fill out bigger than where he started

Inoue is just a small man which is why at 30 years old he can probably still make 118. Manny at 30 would have ended up in hospital on a drip if he tried to make 118 or 122.

Its not comparable.