Notebook: Stevenson believes he chased Valdez into jr. lightweight unification fight

Crawford, Canelo keys in their camps; Arum's take on big fight; Lewis hopes Fury fights on; Quick hits; Show and tell

Apr 28, 2022

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Shakur Stevenson wanted to fight Oscar Valdez for the past few years, back when he held a featherweight world title. He called Valdez out regularly and was rebuffed.

A month after Stevenson won a featherweight title in 2019 Valdez vacated his belt after six defenses and moved up to junior lightweight.

Now, they both hold junior lightweight titles and even though they are set to meet for 130-pound supremacy in a unification fight, which will also be for the vacant Ring magazine title, Stevenson feels as though Valdez didn’t really want the fight, which will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

“I think it was more his team, Team Canelo. They probably forced him into fighting me,” Stevenson said this week, referring to trainer Eddy Reynoso and Valdez training partner Canelo Alvarez, the pound-for-pound king. “I don’t think he actually really wanted to fight. It’s a fight he tried to avoid for as long as he could. But as you can see he couldn’t avoid it for that long.”

Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs), 31, a 2008 and 2012 Mexican Olympian, offered a different perspective.

He said he cannot wait to meet Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs), 24, a southpaw from Newark, New Jersey, and 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist, in the ring after being called out for so long.

“This is a fight people have wanted for a long time,” Valdez said. “Shakur Stevenson has been mentioning my name for quite some time already, since I was a featherweight, and it got under my skin after hearing so many times that we were scared of him, that we were ducking him. That was never the case.

“We were just always looking for bigger and better fights. Now, Shakur is a two-division world champion. He’s the WBO world champion, I’m the WBC world champion. It makes perfect sense to define who’s the best fighter at 130 pounds, so I’m very excited for this. I’ve been taking this fight seriously.

“I’m very excited to step in the ring and show my skills. I can get in there and brawl but I can also box. Going up against a fighter like Shakur Stevenson, we know he isn’t going to risk it, isn’t going to try to bang or stand toe to toe. He’s gonna try to use his boxing skills. So, that’s something we’re going to have to do as well. We’re gonna be the smarter fighter. Instead of war, it’s gonna be more of a chess game. I’m truly excited for this. Every time there’s higher competition I rise to the competition. We know Shakur Stevenson is a good fighter. We know he is a good boxer, so that is going to bring the best out of myself.”

Valdez will enter as the underdog, a scenario he said he understands because Stevenson looked spectacular in ripping apart Jamel Herring and knocking him out in the 10th round in October to win the title.

Valdez, meantime, had a similarly impressive performance in February 2021 when he dominated longtime titleholder Miguel Berchelt before drilling him in the 10th round for the knockout of the year and taking his title.

However, in his first defense against Robson Conceicao in September, Valdez looked about as bad as he ever had in a disputed decision win in a fight overshadowed by the controversy of a failed Valdez drug test. The fight was allowed to proceed, however, due to a technicality.

“People judge you on your last fight,” Valdez said. “You’re only as good as your last fight to the eyes of the fans. So, we know my last performance wasn’t my best performance. I’d say one of my worst performances through all that was going down in that situation. In the case of Shakur Stevenson, his last performance was his best performance against Jamel Herring. He looked very well. So, I think that’s what influences the bets, but that doesn’t bother me at all. It just brings more motivation to the training camp.

“Personally, I think 2021 was a great learning experience for me because it stated off high and then it turned out to be the lowest I’ve ever been in my career because of being accused of being called a cheater and then the bad performance against Conceicao. I was very high in early 2021 and then at the end I felt like I was at the bottom with all the criticism. But then that only made me learn a lot of things. I learned who really is beside me. Made me learn what he real importance of my career is.

“Right now I’m very focused and there’s nothing out there that can bother me right now. It’s the fight of my career. It’s the fight of my life.”

Even with Valdez coming off the ragged showing against Conceicao, Stevenson said he respects Valdez — but that he plans to win impressively.

“I’m a dominant fighter,” Stevenson said. “I feel like all my fights are one-sided, so I’m planning on going in there and doing the exact same thing. I don’t know how much better I can get but I know I’m not even in my prime yet so I can get a lot better than I am already.

“He’s a great fighter but I think I’m the better fighter.”

P4P elites assist Valdez, Stevenson

As Valdez and Stevenson, the two best 130-pounders in the world, prepare to unify titles, they have gone through their training camps with assistance from a pair of modern greats.

Valdez, who holds the WBC title, was in camp in San Diego with trainer Eddy Reynoso training alongside pound-for-pound king and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, who challenges Dmitry Bivol for his light heavyweight title next week.

WBO titlist Stevenson, who trained with Kay Koroma in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has had big brother figure and welterweight titlist Terence Crawford on hand to also help him get ready.

Valdez and Stevenson both say the wisdom, advice and gym work with their mentors has been invaluable as they get ready to square off in one of the most significant fights of the year.

Please read my story on Big Fight Weekend for their thoughts about training with Canelo and Crawford here: https://bigfightweekend.com/news/pound-for-pound-elites-assisting-valdez-stevenson-in-training/

Arum’s take

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum has promoted Oscar Valdez since his pro debut in 2012 and Stevenson since his debut in 2017. He said he believed both would win world titles, and both have at both featherweight and junior lightweight.

And since the company signed Stevenson, Arum said he had an inkling they would eventually fight in a major bout.

“Well, when we signed Oscar, we knew he would be a premier fighter in the sport,” Arum said this week. “And when we signed Shakur, we knew that he would be a superstar in the sport. And it was always in the back of our mind that if the weights coincided, they would fight each other. I mean, they’re two great young men, two great fighters and it’s what the public wants to see. And I am so happy that, thanks to ESPN, we can do this fight without asking the public to pay additional money on pay-per-view. So, this is wonderful for the sport.”

Some have suggested that the match is reminiscent of the 2001 junior lightweight title fight between the young Floyd Mayweather and Diego Corrales, who, like Valdez and Stevenson, were both undefeated going into what should have been a unification bout but wasn’t because Corrales had to vacate his belt to fight Mayweather rather than fight a mandatory defense for a fraction of the acclaim and money.

Mayweather’s style is similar to Stevenson’s in that they are both superb defensively and ultra fast. Valdez, similarly to the late Corrales, is a pressure fighter with a powerful punch.

Mayweather-Corrales, which ended with Mayweather scoring a 10th-round TKO in an entertaining but one-sided fight, also took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the same venue where Valdez and Stevenson will fight.

Arum downplayed any comparisons.

“That was a great fight. I remember,” Arum said. “But to make comparisons with different eras is really beside the point. I just think this is gonna be a great, great fight. And the thing I like about it is each trainer wanted this fight. Certainly Eddy Reynoso for Valdez and Shakur’s granddaddy (Wali Moses) and Coach Kay (Koroma) wanted the fight. So, I’m looking forward to a great, great fight. To compare it to Mayweather and Corrales, I can see what you’re getting at, but I think it’s too much of a reach.”

Lewis wants more Fury

Lennox Lewis, the Hall of Fame great and the last undisputed heavyweight champion (during three-belt era) hopes that his British countryman Tyson Fury, the reigning heavyweight champion, will not retire as he said he would before and after knocking out Dillian Whyte in the sixth round before 94,000 in an epic event on Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London.

“Another great performance by (Fury) to show why he’s the number one (heavyweight) in the division right now,” Lewis wrote in one of a series of tweets about Fury. “But let’s talk about the economics. He filled Wembley with 94 thousand fans (the biggest gate in Wembley history) to prove he has drawing power among UK fan base.

“So to think that there’s even BIGGER fights than this still out there is [mind blowing]. I know he’s talked retirement, but I feel there’s still some unfinished business to be done on his part and I look forward to welcoming him into the undisputed club as a fellow Brit and as an honour to the lineage of #kronkboxing, when all is said and done.”

Lewis was trained by the late, great Emanuel Steward, founder of the famed Kronk Gym in Detroit. Fury is trained by SugarHill Steward, Emanuel’s nephew.

“To see (Fury) get up off the canvas of life and turn himself into the best (heavyweight) in the world is a thing of beauty. I’ve personally learned to never bet against him and am proud of his accomplishments and commitment to himself and his craft,” Lewis continued.

“When Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder had a chance to make history, it didn’t happen. Fury is one fight away, and either, AJ or (unified titlist Oleksandr) Usyk, are 2-3 fights away from UNDISPUTED. Which is the fight I’ve been calling for for many years. I’m hoping everyone takes care of business and the winner of Joshua-Usyk (rematch) steps into the ring with Fury to crown the first undisputed champion since me. I’ve been keeping UNDISPUTED warm for way too many years.

“In the meantime, it’s now time for Tyson Fury to celebrate his win with his family and friends and wait to see what happens in this crazy division. Congrats champ on a job well done. Relax, rest, and enjoy. All of it is well deserved. Bless!”

Quick hits

While DAZN will offer Saturday’s Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano card as part of its basic subscription plan and next week’s Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol card as its first pay-per-view to its subscribers, both shows will also be available via PPV.com, the new streaming platform from iNDEMAND, to non-DAZN subscribers as well. Taylor-Serrano is $24.99 and comes with a free month of DAZN. Canelo-Bivol is $79.99 and will include a hosted, live chat in English and Spanish with multiple boxing experts. The stream is available in English or Spanish and the chat comes with both audio versions.

Longtime fan-favorite brawler Alfredo “Perro” Angulo (26-8, 21 KOs), 39, of Mexico, may be way past his best days but he plans to fight again. Angulo, a former interim junior middleweight titlist, is scheduled for an eight-round super middleweight bout on June 11 at the Center Stage Theater in Atlanta on a Prestige Boxing Advisory Group card. It will be only Angulo’s fifth fight since 2016. He is coming off a lopsided 10-round decision loss to Vladimir Hernandez on a Premier Boxing Champions card in August 2020.

Show and tell

Lightweight Keyshawn Davis (4-0, 3 KOs), 23, who claimed a silver medal at this past summer’s Tokyo Olympics, is widely viewed as one of the best prospects in boxing. He was 3-0 as a pro when he got a late invitation to join the U.S. Olympic team. After the Olympics, Davis signed with Top Rank, which wound up singing the entire U.S. men’s team. Davis is back in action on Saturday’s Oscar Valdez-Shakur Stevenson card in the eight-round co-feature against Esteban Sanchez (18-1 8 KOs). The fight-night program will include two trading cards as part of the Seidman Productions ongoing set. One features a face-off between Valdez and Stevenson and the other is Davis’ rookie card. Here is what it looks like, front and back. I have written the backs for all of the cards in the set, which is now at 64 cards.

Valdez-Stevenson related photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Lewis photo: Press Association

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