Terence Crawford says he’s confident that WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson will defeat Josh Padley tonight, and he’ll then beat WBA champ Gervonta Davis in a unification match in his next fight.
Crawford is hopeful that promoter Eddie Hearn will be able to set up a fight between Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) and Tank Davis next. That’s not something that Hearn can do alone. He’ll need Turki Alalshikh to want to see that fight and whether he will likely be based on how Shakur performs tonight in his match against substitute opponent Padley (15-0, 4 KOs) in Riyadh.
Hearn is the one who recommended Padley to Turki. They obviously could have picked a better opponent, but that might have messed up Shakur, who has shown that he lacks the power at 135 to stand and fight. His only path to winning against fighters with power is to hit and run. That’s what he would do against Tank, and it wouldn’t be fun to watch. Moreover, it would take a special set of judges that value that style over fighters who come to fight, land punches, and please the crowds.
It’s doubtful that Crawford would pick Shakur to defeat Tank if he wasn’t close friends with him and didn’t have a similar style. Most people don’t see Stevenson beating Davis. They just see him as a boring fighter who always fights B-level opposition and then calls out Tank. Shakur has been fighting in the lightweight division for two years since 2023, and the three fights he’s had have been against these guys:
– Shuichiro Yoshino
– Artem Harutyunyan
– Edwin De Los Santo
“I think that’s a great fight. I think that’s a massive fight. If Eddie Hearn can pull that off, so be it. That’s great for boxing,” said Terence Crawford to iFL TV, reacting to promoter Eddie Hearn saying he wants to make a fight between Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis next with the help of Turki Alalshikh.
“Of course, but I can’t say I’m 100% confident because boxing is boxing, but I think my little brother is going to handle business in there,” said Crawford when asked if he’s confident Shakur will defeat Tank Davis.
“Shakur Stevenson for the win tomorrow, y’all. Stay tuned,” said Crawford.
