Shakur Stevenson: Stephen A. Smith’s Top Pick For Gervonta Davis’s Next Opponent

Shakur Stevenson, the WBC lightweight champion, is Stephen A. Smith’s pick for who Gervonta Davis should fight in November over Vasily Lomachenko.

Smith Favors Stevenson Over Lomachenko

Smith feels that IBF lightweight champion Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) doesn’t have the power to knock out Tank Davis, and fans will be watching him try to knock out the Baltimore native to survive. Stephen believes that Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) would have a better chance against Tank.

A fight between Tank and Shakur will be difficult to sell on PPV because Stevenson has no fans outside of Newark, New Jersey.

Stevenson failed to sell out the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in his last fight against Edwin De Los Santos and was challenged on his safety first in that tournament.

“Shakur Stevenson [who Stephen A Smith wants Gervonta to fight next]. Now, Lomachenko is a brilliant tactician and a brilliant boxer. “His footwork is very good, and he’s very experienced,” Smith said on his First Take YouTube channel about who he wants Tank Davis to fight next.

It is not clear whether Stephen Smith watches boxing a lot because he sounds like he has no knowledge about the sport. Shakur is NOT a puncher, and he won’t knock out Tank Davis or let him. What he will do is run around the ring like he did to De Los Santos, Jeremiah Nakahilia, Oscar Valdez, and Robson Conceicao.

Shakur will fight next month on July 6th against Artem Harutyunyan, and he is not expected to knock out the striker.

Stevenson’s Style Anxiety

It’s an important fight for Shakur because he needs to make it interesting after his last performance against De Los Santos was stopped instead of going twelve rounds. That’s asking a lot of Shakur because he’s been fighting the same style since he was a teenager, and he’s not going to change now.

“My issue with Lomachenko is, I don’t know if he has the strength to stop Gervonta Davis, which means we will be watching the fight to see if he will knock out Gervonta or if he will survive. That’s not the war I want,” said Stephen.

No one in the lightweight division has the ability to KO Tank Davis, except for Abdullah Mason, but he is too young to fight him. No one can stand and hit with a Tank right now. So, of course, Lomachenko would box him because that’s the only chance he or anyone has to beat him.

“The tank is more powerful than people think. I want to see him at the 140-lb limit. Don’t make Ryan Garcia go down to 135. Don’t have a rehydration clause in there. I’d like to see him with Teofimo Lopez, too. Not Devin Haney, because even though Devin Haney is an amazing boxer, I don’t think he can take a punch from Gervonta Davis.”