Promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in signing Shakur Stevenson to his Matchroom company after his Saturday night fight against Artem Harutyunyan.
The Need for a Promotional Overhaul
Hearn feels the WBC lightweight champion Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) needs to be built promotional into a star, but he believes he can do it. He doesn’t say how he would go about it, though, because it’ll require more than hyping him up in interviews to make a star out of the 2016 Olympic silver medalist.
Assuming Hearn does sign Shakur, he’ll need to brainwash him into changing the way he fights because his defensive style doesn’t fit in this era of boxing fans.
Rethinking Shakur’s Fighting Style
It’s like taking a singer from the 1920s and trying to sell their music to the public in 2024. It won’t work. Shakur fights with a style that doesn’t work with fans of this era, and it will only attract interest from thie fans that enjoy defenses over offenses.
The fights that Shakur needs to build him into a star are against these guys:
Gervonta Davis
Vasily Lomachenko
Devin Haney
Teofimo Lopez
Ryan Garcia
Hearn doesn’t have any of those fighters signed to his stable, and he’s not going to be able to get any of them to agree to fight Shakur without the Saudis offering them a lot of money.
A Potential Partnership on the Horizon
“I can’t praise him highly enough. He’s pound-for-pound quality,” said Eddie Hearn to Charlie Parson’s YouTube channel about wanting to sign Shakur Stevenson after the final fight of his contract with Top Rank this Saturday night against Artem Harutyunyan.
If Hearn does sign Shakur, he needs to have a good plan in place to get the most value out of him because his fighting style will never attract fans to his fights. He will only be useful if he’s matched against a fighter with a fan base, like Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, Vasily Lomachenko, or Ryan Garcia.
“Not to Shakur, but to his people. They want to talk. We definitely want to have those conversations,” said Hearn when asked if he’s spoken to Shakur about signing him to his Matchroom company.
“Promotionally, I don’t think where he should be because what happens with Bob [Arum] and Top Rank is they kind of give up. I don’t necessarily blame them because when a fighter comes out and says, ‘I’m off after this fight,’ you’re not going to make them a priority, are you?”
Blaming Top Rank and Bob Arum for Shakur not being a star doesn’t make sense because they matched him against Oscar Valdez, Jamel Herring, Jeremiah Nakathilia, Edwin De Los Santos, and Joet Gonzalez. Shakur hasn’t become a star because of his hit-and-not-get-hit fighting style, which he refuses to change, and he can’t change even if he wants to without ruining his career.
“Shakur is making a lot of money. I made a joke to Bob, saying, ‘I’m not going to pay him the kind of money you’re paying him,’ and he told everybody. It was kind of tongue-in-cheek, but there is an element of truth in that because the fight has to deliver value.
“So, I might not pay Shakur that kind of money to fight someone you’ve never heard of, but I will pay them that kind of money and more for big fights that do draw,” said Hearn. “I think promotionally, he needs a job done on him. He needs to buy into that as well.”
Hearn can drag Shakur over to England to try and build him into a star over there. Still, it’s not going to work in the U.S. He was booed out of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in his last fight against Edwin De Los Santos last November, and that was just one of many dull performances by him.
“Jaron Ennis bought into that, and look at him now—one of the top fighters in the sport about to do 15,000 next week. We’re being aggressive, building fighters, and we have a great stable. We would love to add Shakur to that,” said Hearn.
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis has a far more entertaining style than Shakur Steveson, so it will be easier for Hearn to turn him into a star. Ennis isn’t afraid to engage with his opponents like Shakur is, and he’s willing to put his chin on the line to entertain the fans. Shakur isn’t.
