WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson says he doesn’t know too much about his replacement opponent Josh Padley for their 12-round fight on Saturday, February 22nd, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, picked Padley (15-0, 4 KOs) out of a couple of fighters. The other one was the dangerous knockout artist Jadier Herrera (16-0, 14 KOs). He might have been a little too good because the idea is not to have Shakur lose.
Weak Opponent Syndrome
Hearn doesn’t say which fighters he reached out to for Shakur’s replacement opponent. One big obstacle is the British Boxing Board of Control’s check-weight on Wednesday. Whoever they found, they would have had to make weight today. That would be near impossible unless Hearn selected the replacement from the 130 or 126-lb division.
Padley is obviously a terrible opponent for Shakur to fight. He’s far worse than Joe Cordina, who Hearn was trying to line up as Shakur’s opponent for the first fight of his Matchroom contract last October. Using Padley is scrapping the bottom of the barrel, and the fight only reinforces the view that Stevenson is a hype job with an inflated record.
“I don’t know too much about him. I just watched one round. Just so it’s go time. I put in all this work in the training camp. Are we going to stop the fight just because he’s doing what he’s doing? No,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fight Hub TV when asked if he’d ever seen his new opponent, Josh Padley, fight before.
“I’m not no chump, and I’m not a guy that is going to take whatever either,” said Shakur Stevenson to Boxing News about his hoped-for unification fight against Gervonta Davis. “I know that him fighting me will be the biggest fight of his career. So, let’s make it happen.”
Hearn wants to deliver the Gervonta Davis mega-bout for Shakur in his next fight, the second fight of his two-fight contract with Matchroom. So, it’s understandable why Hearn wouldn’t want a dangerous opponent to be used as Stevenson’s sub for Saturday.
