Stevenson’s Audition: The Padley Fight And A Potential Tank Davis Clash

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson has a lot of pressure on him to look impressive tonight in beating Josh Padley at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. This is not someone that Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) can afford to struggle against if he doesn’t want to be ridiculed by fans more than he already is. If Shakur runs from this guy tonight, it’s over with. His career will never be the same.

Stevenson told Padley on Friday he’s going to whip his “a**” in their fight on Saturday. Now, if he runs from Padley as he did against a dozen of his past opponents, that’s going to show the fans what he’s all about.

What If He Fails?

Realistically, Stevenson needs a knockout of Padley (15-0, 4 KOs) for him to come out of this fight without his stock plummeting. It’s one of those fights where you can’t gain anything because Padley isn’t a top 10-level fighter. He’s just a British-level fighter that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, picked out. Shakur needs a knockout within six rounds to come out of this fight.

This fight is more critical for Shakur because Hearn wants to set up the “biggest fight in boxing” next against Gervonta Davis. He’d look silly pushing for that fight if Stevenson struggles tonight and labors his way to a dull 12-round decision.

Hearn needs Shakur to look like 24k gold against Josh for him to be able to go to Turki Alalshikh and ask for his help in luring Tank Davis into fighting him. Without Turki, Hearn has no hope of putting that fight together. He’s not going to empty the Matchroom Boxing war chest to come up with the dough to entice Gervonta to face Shakur in a fight that will likely fail to cover the costs.

Shakur isn’t a PPV draw, and Tank has only had one fight during his 12-year career against Ryan Garcia. The fans who purchased the event were likely Ryan’s 12M Instagram followers. Shakur isn’t popular on social media like Ryan.

That’s why it’s crucial that Shakur looks great tonight. He’s a lesser fighter, whom he would be expected to destroy if he’s worthy of sharing the ring with Tank. Shakur is obviously not what Hearn says he is. He’s not pound-for-pound #1 or one of the best fighters in the sport. He’s just a defensive guy, with 90% of his game being defense and only 10% being offense.

For Hearn to have signed Shakur to just a two-fight contract says a lot. I would do the same. I would sign Shakur to a short contract, match him against fluff opposition to make him look good, and then push hard for the Tank fight. That’s where I would turn a profit. After Shakur loses that fight, I’d re-sign him because he will have been exposed, and rebuilding him would cost too much money.