Former WBO featherweight champ Shakur Stevenson and his opponent for Saturday Toka Kahn Clary weighed in successfully on Friday afternoon for their fight this Saturday night in ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images)
The two are headlining on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. This is another one of Stevenson’s showcase fights for him to impress fans while he waits for the smoke to clear from WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring’s title defense against Carl Frampton.
The 2016 Olympic U.S Silver medalist Stevenson (14-0, 8 KOs) has already been told by his promoters at Top Rank that he gets to fight the Herring vs. Frampton winner.
Stevenson, 23 weighed in right at the super featherweight limit at 130lbs, and his opponent Clary (28-2, 19 KOs) weighed in at 129lbs.
“We’re going to go for the WBO title first, and then after that, we’re going to get the WBC,” said Stevenson in laying out his plans. “I feel like I’m the more experienced fighter, not professional-wise.
But what I know in the ring, I feel like I’m more experienced than he is,” said Stevenson about Toka Kahn Clary.
“I know more than him, and I’m a lot smarter than he is. I’d fight the winner of Jamel-Frampton, Berchelt, Jo Jo Diaz, and then Tank,” Shakur said in giving the four fights that he’d like to take consecutively.
“I haven’t done enough in the sport of boxing [to be pound-for-pound],” said Shakur.
Felix Verdejo vs. Masayoshi Nakatani
Lightweight contender Felix Verdejo (27-1, 17 KOs) will be looking to pick up his fifth consecutive win against the tough Japanese fighter Masayoshi Nakatani (18-1, 12 KOs).
Verdejo, 27, weighed in at 135 lbs, and his opponent Nakatani also came in at 135.
It’s important that Verdejo win and look good on Saturday because there are still a lot of boxing fans that have doubts about his ability to fight at a high level.
Verdejo’s tenth round knockout loss to journeyman Antonio Lozado Torres in 2018 helped create doubt in the minds of fans about Verdejo’s future in the sport.
Although Verdejo has won his last four fights since then, he’s done it against poor opposition fed to him by his promoters at Top Rank to boost his confidence.
Top Rank has invested a lot of money in Verdejo’s future. They’re going to need to find out soon whether it’s worth it for them to continue to spend money on a fighter that might not ever pan out.
Verdejo has been a pro for eight years, and you got to figure that if he was going to amount to something, he already would have proven it.
Edgar Berlanga vs. Ulises Sierra
Undefeated #6 WBA, #9 WBO super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga (15-0, 15 KOs) weighed in at 169 pounds for his fight against Ulises Sierra (15-1-2, 9 KOs). Sierra weighed in at 167.5 lbs
Berlanga will be looking to extend his record of 15 consecutive first-round knockouts. This is supposed to be the last easy fight for Berlanga before he takes on two veterans in 2021.
“I feel like, after the October 17th fight, I blew up a little bit more,” said Edger Berlanga.
“We ain’t there yet, and I always tell myself, ‘We ain’t s*** yet.’ I ain’t got a world title. I ain’t done s*** in boxing. It’s cool to have that, but I haven’t done s*** in boxing but break a knockout record and that’s nothing.
To be honest, next year we’re going to step it up against a couple of veterans and prove myself.
“Obviously, I have to prove myself to the people and the champions that have belts so I can get that respect. I see myself in 2022 fighting for a world title,” said Berlanga.
The 23-year-old Berlanga wants Canelo Alvarez, and he could potentially be in a position to face the Mexican star by 2022 if he keeps winning. Ultimately, it’ll be up to Canelo to decide what he wants to do.
If Canelo captures the WBO super middleweight title and then decides he doesn’t want to fight Berlanga, it’s going to look like he’s ducking the New York native.
Official weights:
- Clay Collard 159 lbs vs. Quincy LaVallais 159 lbs
- Jesse Rodriguez 110.5 lbs vs. Saul Juarez 110 lbs
- Robeisy Ramirez 126 lbs vs. Brandon Valdes 127 lbs
- Elvis Rodriguez 146.5 lbs vs. Larry Fryers 145.5 lbs
- Haven Brady Jr. 127 lbs vs. Michael Land 126 lbs
- Kasir Goldston 142 lbs vs. Llewelyn McClamy 142.5 lbs
