Shakur Stevenson let Oscar Valdez know during their face-off on Thursday that he’s going to have to crack his code for him to win on Saturday night in their super featherweight unification on ESPN.
Valdez vs. Shakur card will be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+ at 10:00 p.m. ET this Saturday night on April 30th in a Top Rank Boxing event.
The “code” that WBO super featherweight champion Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs) refers to is his elusive fighting style, which involves him darting backward after throwing single pinpoint shots.
Like Floyd Mayweather Jr, the 24-year-old Stevenson is what’s known as a potshot artist, a fighter that throws single punches and then moves out of the way to avoid getting hit back.
Stevenson is a clone of Mayweather when Floyd was in the second half of his career, and he’s an excellent copy of the unbeaten ex-champion.
For the 31-year-old WBC 130-lb champion Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) to have a shot at winning this fight, he’s got to find a method to get through the amateur fencing style that Shakur employs.
Shakur Stevenson: “You know it’s a code you have to crack, right?” said Shakur to Valdez during their face-off on Thursday at the final press conference. “It’s going to be hard, real hard.”
Oscar Valdez: “It’s going to be a good one.”
Shakur: “I can’t wait; I swear I can’t wait.”
To win this fight, the slower Valdez will need to stay close to Stevenson, fight him on the inside and not allow him to hit & run all night, as we saw from him in his fight against Jeremia Nakathilia last June.
If Valdez can’t stay on top of Shakur like two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez did to defeat him, he will lose.
What makes Valdez’s job even more challenging is that Stevenson will grab & hold whenever he gets inside, as we saw in his fight with Robeisy in the 2016 Olympics.
Valdez will need to fight through these clinches by Stevenson; otherwise, his offense will be nullified.
“I think it’s amazing, the best fighting the best, and I think we deserve it,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on the lineal title being up for grabs on Saturday night in his fight against Oscar Valdez.
“Nah, I want all the belts. I want to see I’m undisputed,” said Stevenson on whether he’ll be done with the 130-lb division after Saturday night’s fight with WBC super featherweight champion Valdez.
“I got to focus on Saturday because if I don’t win on Saturday, we won’t be talking about that. Oscar Valdez is my focus right now,” said Shakur.
