Shakur Stevenson is still bitter about Vasily Lomachenko not agreeing to fight him after he moved up to the lightweight two years ago in 2023. He feels that the former three-division world champion ducked him, and he’s “disappointed because he looked up to him.
Lomachenko likely viewed Shakur as unworthy of fighting because he wasn’t popular when he moved up to the lightweight division two years ago. Even now, Stevenson isn’t a star, and his recent fight against Josh Padley was buried on the undercard on Turki Alalshikh’s card on February 22nd.
The way Lomachnko looked in his last fight against George Kambosos Jr. last year, he’d beat Shakur because his offense and power are still quite formidable. The 37-year-old Lomachenko has lost some stuff from his game due to age, injuries and activity, but he’s still too good overall for a limited fighter like Stevenson to beat him. There’s not enough offense to Shakur’s game to beat a complete fighter like Loma.
The “Looked Up To” Factor
“More disappointed about a fight you didn’t get yet, Tank Davis or Vasily Lomachenko,” said Chris Mannix to Ring Magazine, talking to Shakur Stevensoon about fights that he’s wanted but hasn’t been able to get for one reason or another.
“Lomachenko, definitely more disappointed,” said Shakur. “With Tank, I always knew that with him being a big superstar, it’s going to happen on his time. It’s not going to be on my time. I’m going to call for it. I’m going to say his name, however, he gets mad, but truthfully. it’s on his time. It’s when he says, ‘Let’s fight.’
“With the Loma fight, I kind of looked up to Lomachenko. I had a certain look up to Lomachenko. He was that guy for me. For him to be something like duck, like he don’t really want to fight me, it kind of made me look at him a little bit different. Truthfully, he had a hell of a career. He was a legend, but I still think he ducked me,” said Shakur.
If the two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko gave Stevenson his wish and fought him, there’s an excellent chance he would beat him. Shakur’s offense lags far behind his defense, and he would have problems with Lomachenko’s superior ability on that side of his game.
Lomachenko’s career started slowing down in 2023, which may have been a factor in him not fighting Shakur. Loma has fought twice in the last two years, against Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr.
