Comments Thread For: Paulie Malignaggi's Picks: Shakur Stevenson showed he's best at 135 pounds and that it's time for rivals to step up

[Bronx2245]

Fighting Kambo first still makes sense, because it would make Loma vs Stevenson a unification. It's a bigger fight if they both have belts. Shouldn't they want to maximize their profit? Shouldn't they position themselves to make the most money? Navarette....he should take his first fight at 135 against the highest risk lowest reward? Or does it make sense to go for the vacant title to make Stevenson a unification? As soon as those belts became vacant, Top Rank started positioning their guys. Anyway....yes, these guys could have fought Shakur for less money. Is that what you would have done? You would take hundreds of thousands of dollars less fighting Shakur without a belt? Possibly millions less, in Loma's case. Honestly, Shakur should have bet on himself by taking the short money against Haney. He could have become undisputed, and everybody at 135 would have to come to him.

Maybe he should have fought Haney, since he seems to be the only person who was willing to fight him? It’s just hard to believe that the promotion team with the deepest stable at 135, couldn’t find one fighter to MAN UP, for an entire year? Unbelievable!!!

[Smash]

from what i watched of the artem fight artem was not on his bike all the time as in not fighting he was landing some decent, if fairly weak shots himself and throwing quite a lot of punches, kinda like the perfect guy to walk down actually lol, can u imagine artem lasting the fight v bud for example, then shakur said some boos were for artem not fighting, no shakur they were for the fight actually & probably mostly if not all for u i would say

the commentators seemed to be doing a lot of ass kissing actually i think, shakur needs to mature and be comfortable in his own skin whatever way he goes with it, i could be wrong about this but he also seemed to barely acknowledge artem when he came to his corner at fights end to say well done i presume, few issues with shakur he needs to sort out, he needs to listen to bud more i would say, not sure who hes listening to actually

[The D3vil]

Top Rank managed to get Shakur belts in different weight classes, which is great. However, there are guys in Stevenson's weight class that have better resumes. Even Tank, whose resume I've often criticized. Unfortunately for Shakur, Davis and Loma are probably fighting each other next. The winner of that fight will be the best in the division. Eyeball test doesn't secretly make Stevenson the best. Malignaggi is wrong saying it's up to everybody else to step up. It's up to Stevenson to sign with somebody who can get him the winner.

Stevenson's not as old as those guys are, plus he started his boxing life at 126, so of course they have had more time to fight more people at 135, as Shakur's just gotten there.

But it's the job of everybody involved to fight the best fighters in their division.

I don't buy allowing guys not to fight guys in their own division because guys are on the "wrong side of the street", that's nonsense.

If a guy has a belt in your division, you should be trying to fight him, and Tank is the cash cow of American boxing, so he could & should be fighting Shakur, Loma, and anybody else who's a champion in his division.

[The D3vil]

Levels to the game... Whitaker could hurt you... Specially with a counter, Mayweather? ditto. Rigo was elite. Shakur has not shown the same capacity compared to Loma for example... With LOma? you give him an inch and he becomes a physically strong, hard hitting, pressure fighter who will not let you breathe.

Shakur can outbox you & is stronger than people think

He hurt Jamel Harring, who's no pxssy.

There's a reason you don't see him getting roughed up like say Paulie Malinaggi or somebody.

[vitali1999]

I love rewatching Porter knock malignagi out silly over and over

[billeau2]

You have a lot reasons why they should not have fought Shakur, and you don’t seem bothered at all. That bothers me. Well since we’re playing “what if…,” what if Bob Arum intentionally damaged Shakur’s shot at glory, by streering Loma and Navarrette away from him, because he decided not to sign an extension late ‘22, early’23? Could that be possible? Would that bother you?

Its not a question of me being bothered or not. Before I assume something I want to look for logical reasons why it might be so... You actlike Shakur being a talented fighter, and being avoided, is some strange phenomena... It is the norm in boxing right now. Fighters a lot better than Shakur, like Boots Ennis have to watch their best years slip by. Of course it bothers me, I just do not see Shakur as any special case for this process.

I also do not think all the things you call a duck from Shakur are such... A fighter like Loma and Cruz are not really duckers... and might have other reasons for not taking the fight. But you ay be correct, certainly, for a pressure fighter like Cruz this would be a good scrap. Maybe he does not want to deal with that style of fight, I doubt it, but could be...

[billeau2]

Shakur can outbox you & is stronger than people think

He hurt Jamel Harring, who's no pxssy.

There's a reason you don't see him getting roughed up like say Paulie Malinaggi or somebody.

You don't think Malinaggi fought better competition? And that this may be why his bell was wrung more? Hopefully we will see... I do think Shakur is talented, just not elite. I could be wrong on that... I hope we can see him fight up against better competition.

[Poopdick]

Your lack of logic and double standards here are absolutely wild.

Both Martin and his leftovers were massive underdogs.

Davis v Martin odds -700/+500.

Shakur v Harutunyan odds -3500/+1300.

Seriously, just shut up already.

where is it you see double standards from me? I think you are very confused. Shakur fights NOBODIES. Tank fights NOBODIES. that from me is what would be seen as realistic social commentary. but somehow to you, it's double standards lol. I think you so locked into being on a side that you can't understand that not everyone takes sides. I want to see boxing have stars who want the top fights consistently. I stand alone, I take NO sides in anything in life. you on other hand are stuck on something non existant. so you now can try and comprehend what I've said. tuck your little tail and walk away. thank you

[crimsonfalcon07]

where is it you see double standards from me? I think you are very confused. Shakur fights NOBODIES. Tank fights NOBODIES.

From the very first post I quoted. You were giving another poster the business for saying that Shakur ain't all that because he beat Martin's leftovers. You said that Martin was just a prospect, which really SHOULD reinforce Kev's point, but you said "wtf kid." I pointed out that Martin is more of a contender than a prospect. You then tried to backpedal and talk about how Martin was an underdog, and I pointed out the fact that Artem had not only lost to Martin, but that he was an even steeper underdog.

Now you're in here lying about how you weren't taking sides. You absolutely were. You were saying that Tank v Martin was a mismatch in response to another poster saying that Shakur beating a guy that lost to Martin doesn't make Shakur #1 in the division.

Revisionism doesn't change what you said. Crawl back into the little hole from whence you got your handle, and just stop. Tank fights poor competition, and Shakur's competition is even worse. Which, as Kev said, and you criticized him for saying, does not in any way prove Shakur to be the best in the division. To quote you again, "WTF kid."

[F l i c k e r]

lmao, you can't show you are the best against a random who is 12-1.

The guy hasn't even fought a Nakatani or Linares at the weight class yet and he's been a champion. He's been fighting guys with sub 20 record since he beat Oscar Valdez.

He's been fighting guys with less than 20 fights for the past 2 years. He's not the best at 135. He can move back down and be the best, sure. But he's not done anything for 2 YEARS to make that claim. Especially not with Paulie Malignaggi hands.