Shakur Stevenson proudly boasted to the media that he “barely got touched” in his successful title defense of his WBC lightweight belt last Saturday night with his ninth-round technical knockout victory over Josh Padley at The Venue in Riyadh.
Mismatch in Riyadh
Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) barely did get hit, but he was facing a guy with only one notable name on his resume, Mark Chamberlain. Padley looked overwhelmed by the step up in class, going from British level to elite without the needed experience to prepare him. He would have been weeded out if he had fought top-tier opposition.
Turki Alalshikh should put his foot down moving forward and insist on Shakur fighting better opposition if he’s going to be on his cards. This was Stevenson’s fourth fight since moving up to lightweight in 2023, and he’s only fought one good opponent, Edwin De Los Santos. The rest have been Padley-level fighters or worse.
“I barely got touched. Yeah, I probably could have got the stoppage a little bit earlier, but there’s always going to be something to critique,” said Shakur Stevenson to the media, about his performance against Josh Padley last Saturday night in Riyadh.
“As long as I enjoyed what I did, that’s all that matters. I was knocking out the ring rust. I fought in July. If I can stay active and stay locked in, I’m good,” Shakur continued. “I didn’t watch him [Padley] much.
“No, it’s not frustrating,” said Stevenson when asked if it was frustrating that Padley wasn’t willing to play ball. “He was supposed to come in here and give it his all, make sure he can make it to the 12th round. That’s what he was trying to do. So, I succeeded at my job and he was trying to do his job.”
Padley tried his best, attacking Shakur throughout the fight, but he didn’t possess the power, size, or hand speed. Stevenson, 27, looked bigger than him inside the ring and didn’t possess any physical tools to make a real fight of it. Padley did land some shots that caused Shakur to back off at times, but he got picked apart the entire fight.
It’s surprising that a better opponent wasn’t picked out because this level of fighter did nothing for Shakur’s career. It just furthers the belief that he’s been protected his entire eight-year career. Shakur could have been matched against a better opponent. With Cuban Jadier Herrera (16-0, 14 KOs) among the shortlist considered, Team Stevenson could have chosen himself, and he would have something to really brag about if he won. However, with Herrera’s power, Stevenson might have lost, and that’s probably the reason why he wasn’t picked.
“I pushed for Floyd Schofield to come out here and give him the biggest payday of his career. He slapped me in the face when he did what he did [pulling out of the fight due to illness]. That was a slap in the face,” said Shakur, conjuring up a conspiracy theory for why the novice Schofield pulled out due to health reasons.
Shakur hand-picked Schofield as his original opponent. So it’s his fault that he chose a novice with no experience against top-tier opposition during his career. He could have chosen a better fighter than the 22-year-old Schofield, but he wanted someone who would trash talk, which he and his dad did.
“Why would I fight him again? Why would I give him the opportunity when he’s probably going to slap me in the face again? He ain’t doing nothing but lie on me all the time, him and his dad. They lied on me during the entire build-up. So, I’ll probably never give him another opportunity,” said Stevenson.
