Shakur Stevenson Says He’d Fight Devin Haney At 140, Believes Tank Davis Will Face Him – SolSportHQ
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By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson continues using Devin Haney’s name to help promote his fight next week against Edwin De Los Santos on November 16th on ESPN.
Shakur’s constant name-dropping of Haney & Gervonta Davis’ names may have helped increase interest in his fight against De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs), but is troubling when you see a fighter not even mentioning his opponent’s name during long interviews.
Today, Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) floated the idea of moving up to 140 to face Haney if the fight “makes sense” money-wise. Shakur says he believes in himself and would have no problems going up in weight to light welterweight.
It’s unlikely that a fight between Shakur & Haney could happen in any weight class because the negotiations would fall apart over money. Shakur would likely want to be either A-side or have parity, which wouldn’t work.
Given Shakur’s huge welterweight-sized frame, of course, he could move up to 140 without any trouble for a fight with Haney, Regis Prograis, Ryan Garcia, or Tefoimo Lopez. Shakur looked considerably bigger than welterweight champion Terence Crawford when the two posed for a picture recently.
“You can say that they’ve been talking about it for years, but I just had one fight at 135. I’ve been at 130, and those guys have been at 135,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype about how people have been talking about him being in the mix with Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis for years.
“You can’t place no blame on me because I haven’t been in this division,” said Shakur. “Nah, I’ve got a lot more faith in the Tank fight happening before Devin. I think Tank is competitive, and deep down inside, he wants to prove to the world that he wants to beat me, and I want to prove that I beat him.
“I feel like he’ll fight me. With Devin, I disagree with you when you say he’s going to go up to 147. I think he’s going to be at 140 for a long time. Even if he got bigger and the weight was hard to make, he wouldn’t want to fight those dudes at 147.
“I don’t believe his confidence is that high for him to just jump from weight to weight like him doing, going from 126, 130, and 135. I don’t think his confidence is that high just to go to 147. At 140, I feel he’s [Haney] going to try and stay there a long time like he did with 135.
“Boots is at 147. I believe in myself wholeheartedly. It don’t matter because I will stand on what I’m saying. I wouldn’t mind fighting at 140, but let me get my feet wet at 135 and keep feeling the division out.
“Even if I’m not physically at that weight and weighing close to. I spar with 140-pounders all the time, and I know they say that sparring and fighting is different. I spar with 140-pounders, 147-pounders, and I been in there with 154-pounders. Brian Mendoza and me sparred when I was a 126-pounder.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind, but it’s got to make sense,” said Shakur about a fight between him and Haney. “If it makes sense, we can get something going.
“Yeah, because we’re at the same weight class, and honestly, I think that Tank will fight me. I don’t think he won’t fight me. I think that would be a tremendous fight, and I can’t wait.
“There’s nothing y’all can do. It’ll come down to when Tank feels it’s the right time. I think that being that they’re smart businessmen over there [PBC & Mayweather Promotions, the handlers for Gervonta].
“Being that they’re smart businessmen, they know how to cash out and make it the most for the both of us. It would be a tremendous event, and I would love to do it,” said Shakur.
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