It’s a boxing match that everyone wants to see happen. Why shouldn’t it happen? After all, both are big names in boxing today. Okay, Gervonta Davis, as one of boxing’s ‘faces’, perhaps deserves a higher status. But Shakur Stevenson is not far behind. Like the Baltimorean, the Newark-born Southpaw is also a lightweight champion. So a unification fight makes all the more sense. but Gervonta Davis seemingly had some reservations about the potential matchup.

Shakur Stevenson returns to the ring next week, nearly half a year after he won his third world championship title. The interim period was nothing short of dramatic, as fans saw him announce a sudden retirement! Gervonta Davis, on the other hand, concluded yet another successful title defense. Stevenson sat down with award-winning boxing journalist Kevin Iole. Talks invariably touched down on Tank’s statement at the Frank Martin fight’s post-match presser.

Shakur Stevenson strikes back ‘casually’

The 2007 Nat Fleischer Award recipient and the WBC lightweight champion first discussed how the lead-up to the latter’s upcoming title defense has been. They took up the level of criticism he faced after the fight against Edwin De Los Santos. Especially the way he defended himself with quick moves became a talking point for everyone.

But the sore point was how many took it as a ‘running’ instead of the slick boxing moves of a well-regarded defensive boxer. Gervonta Davis, it appears, was one of them. During the post-fight conference of the latest match, when asked to share his opinion on the potential line-up with Stevenson, Davis replied, “You know how it would go; everybody in this room knows how it would go.” Later, he admitted that a fight between them would be good for the sport.

Kevin Iole first stressed the kind of respect he had for Shakur Stevenson. He revealed that he would rather rate him higher than anyone else, as far as the P4P rating goes. However, he wanted to know his thoughts on what Gervonta Davis said. “Gervonta Davis was the one that said it; it wasn’t me as a boxing writer or some other fan or other boxing writer, so that’s one of your peers, do you think?”

Shakur Stevenson shot back, saying that the reason ‘Tank’ must have spoken like that could be because he was quite ‘casual’. “He’s a casual, though, like Tank is a casual; we gotta be honest, like, um, when we like, look at him and really understand,” said the lightweight champion to Kevin Iole. Stevenson further explained that Davis’ passing such observations could be attributed to his lack of boxing knowledge and not that he has a low boxing IQ.

‘Tank’s misguided shells?

Then he cited one example. He took the Isaac Cruz and Rolando Romero fight. In the lead-up to the match, Gervonta Davis had opined that Romero would win. He has fought both in the past. So he probably felt that ‘Rollie’ had the upper hand because he was more powerful. He stressed that Rolando Romero would knock out ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.

However, Shakur Stevenson emphasized that such opinions should be treated for what they are: casual views. He said, “That‘s a casual opinion; like you, you really think about it’s a casual opinion.” But on the other hand, he said that a person who is deep into boxing will know that Isaac Cruz would have allowed ‘Rollie’ Romero to go so easily.

For the experienced eye, it wasn’t a trick question’ nor ‘hard to pick’. Hence, that’s how casual conversation and thoughts emerge. “Like a Gervonta Davis brain, um good fighter, but he’s a casual, so, uh, yeah, of course he gonna say what the casual says; he reads the tweets and listens to the casual fans, and um, casual,” he closed.

Shakur Stevenson is expected to sail through Artem Harutyunyan. So the obvious question is: Who’s going to be next? There are talks of a possible match between Gervonta Davis and Vasyl Lomachenko. Hence, once done with the fight, perhaps ‘Tank’ can round up to stake a claim at Stevenson’s WBC belt. But the bigger question is: can he really deal with a highly intelligent predator of the ‘Tank’ Davis’ class?

Talking about Shakur Stephenson, Stephen A. Smith said that though he is fully aware of what others say about the WBC lightweight champion as an ‘elite defensive boxer’, the fact remains: “I haven’t watched him enough to dissect and really encapsulate what his skill set,” said Smith.

Stylistically, the Davis-Stevenson matchup could probably be one of the best of recent times. So until they get in the ring together, it will be difficult to gauge who is a casual and who is a genuine follower of the sweet science.

Do you agree with what Shakur Stevenson said about ‘Tank’ Davis? Or, do you think whatever he said was bang on the spot?