Interview with Shakur Stevenson – about sparring with Lomachenko and a possible fight with him

The WBO world Featherweight champion (up to 57.2 kg), the hope of the Top Rank promotion company, American Shakur Stevenson (14-0, 8 KO) gave an interview for the EsNews news portal.

In the conversation, the fighter praised by Bob Arum expressed his opinion about the best lightweights of today, spoke about sparring with the United champion of the light division, Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KO) and commented on the upcoming unification match between Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez.

Note that Vasily does not rule out a return to the category up to 59 kg, within which Stevenson held an extreme fight, so we can not rule out their fight in the future.

61 kg-crazy division. Name your top 5, because there are so many big names in this division.
Lomachenko is number one. Tank (Servant Davis) or Teofilo (Lopez) — the number two and number three. Because Teofilo fought with some serious opposition. Then Devin (Haney) and Ryan (Garcia).

— How do you see yourself in a fight with these guys? After all, you will eventually rise in weight. Who would you like to fight from this top 5?

— There are exactly two names that I would like to meet in the ring as soon as possible — this is Ryan Garcia, because he has a huge fan base. It will be a similar match, as De La Hoya with Floyd. If I do what Floyd did, I’ll be a superstar. A fight for greatness, a fight that will be the most competitive — I would say it is a fight with Lomachenko.

— How would you fight him? He is left-handed, he has good footwork, he is a champion in 3 categories, two gold medals at the Olympics?

— I think by the time we meet … it’s obvious that he’s not getting any bigger, and I’m getting bigger and bigger. I’ll be the first to beat him. I don’t consider his defeat to Salido because I watched this fight and Loma was inexperienced at the time. But I will be like the first person to beat Lomachenko’s experience. I was in the ring with him.

— You sparred? Yes, I remember you were young. You just turned professional, right?

— Then my record was something like 5-0.

Describe your experience, because it does things differently. I don’t know if he did it with you, but sometimes he only works the first two minutes of sparring with a jab, in the next round only with a hook…

— No, he certainly didn’t do that to me. The first time we sparred, he realized how good I was, and he kind of used me the whole training camp. We went a lot of rounds. Other guys came in and they couldn’t spar because he was so much better than them. And he used me all over the camp. I even came without financial arrangements, but they paid me well.

— I was not during your sparring, but I will say that I was in many of his training camps. Usually, he really dominates his sparring partners and constantly changes them. The fact that you were with him is a compliment to you.

“That’s right. He didn’t dominate me.

— Of the big names, have you ever sparred with Crawford?

Yes.

— How competitive was it? Was it a chess game?

Sparring with Crawford is a little different. We’ve been sparring with him for a long time. I’ve been working with him since I was 17, and now I’m 22. the Main thing with Crawford… With Lomachenko, you know what he will do. I know that he will try to put pressure on me, he didn’t box with me that much. Crawford makes so many things: he is in the right front, then left, sometimes it boxes, sometimes pressure. There are many things Crawford can do.

— How do you see the fight between Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez? You were in the ring with both fighters.

— I see it as a really tough fight for Teofilo. Don’t get me wrong, Theo is a hell of a fighter: strong, accurate, with a good Boxing IQ, power. So I think if they fight, the first two or four rounds will be really interesting. Theo can catch it with a big punch. After these rounds, I prefer Lomachenko because he is more experienced. He went through all the rounds before, fought with difficult opposition. Was in a knockdown from Linares, but later stopped him. Over the course of the rounds, the preference will be towards Lomachenko, but first-it will be really interesting to see what Teofimo can do.

— This is one of the fights that everyone wants to see.

“Yes, that’s right.