Ryan Garcia gave Shakur Stevenson a dose of reality on social media, kicking him while he was down following his much-criticized win over Artem Harutyunyan last Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark.
He suggested that Shakur “microdose on shrooms,” which is his way of giving Stevenson a method to deaden the ego hit he’s taking from the fans’ backlash over his dull win.
Ryan’s Brutal Honesty
Garcia put Shakur under a microscope, telling him on X that “everyone knows you are terrified in the ring. You fight like a scared man.” That’s Ryan telling it like it is in the classic Howard Cossell fashion, and Shakur probably doesn’t want to face that truth.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur has fired back at his many critics on social media, trying to defend himself on how he performed.
Shakur won a twelve-round unanimous decision, but it was not the spectacular effort he needed to encourage one of the big promoters to scoop him up on the free agent market. He needed a knockout, but the power wasn’t there, and he failed to go all-out with a flurry of punches when Harutyunyan looked stunned in the ninth.
Shakur naively believes pastures will be greener with another promoter, who will give him the fights he’s been asking for against Gervonta Davis and Vasily Lomachenko.
The Harsh Truth of Free Agency
Unfortunately, no matter where Shakur winds up, be it PBC or Matchroom, they won’t be able to guarantee him Tank or Lomachenko. Also, there’s a good chance that Shakur won’t get an offer that surpasses or even matches the $15 million, five-fight deal Top Rank offered him to re-sign, which he rejected.
Eddie Hearn of Matchroom said he won’t pay Shakur the kind of money Bob Arum was with Top Rank. Unless he changes his mind, Shakur can forget about signing with him, and it might not be worth it anyway if he can’t deliver Tank and Lomachenko on a silver platter.
Matchroom has no one to offer Shakur except for Andy Cruz, Regis Prograis, Liam Paro, Jack Catterall, and Richardson Hitchins. Some or all of those guys would likely beat Shakur, and he’d have to move up to 140 for over of them. They’re not big-money PPV-level fights in the U.S., none of them.
