Stevenson audition: Padley’s fight and a possible shock of the Davis tank

The lightweight champion of the WBC Shakur Stevenson has a lot of pressure on him so that he looks impressive tonight by beating Josh Padley in the Arena kingdom in Riad. This is not someone whom Shakur (22-0, 10 kos) can afford if he does not want to be ridiculed by fans More than it is. If Shakur runs this type tonight, it’s over. Your career will never be the same.

Stevenson told Padley on Friday that he will whip his “A **” in his fight on Saturday. Now, if he runs from Padley as he did against a dozen previous opponents, that will show fans what it is.

What happens if he fails?

Realistically, Stevenson needs a knockout Padley (15-0, 4 kos) to leave this fight without his broth collapsed. It is one of those fights in which you cannot win anything because Padley is not a 10 -level fighter. He is just a British fighter that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, chose. Shakur needs a knockout in six rounds to get out of this fight.

This fight is more critical for Shakur because Hearn wants to establish the “biggest fight in boxing” below against Gervonta Davis. He would look silly pushing for that fight if Stevenson fights tonight and is coming to a boring decision of 12 rounds.

Hearn needs Shakur to look like a 24K gold against Josh so he can go to Turki Alalshikh and ask him for help to attract the Davis tank to fight him. Without Turki, Hearn has no hope of putting up that fight. He will not empty the boxing war chest of the fighting room to find the dough to attract Gervonta to face Shakur in a fight that probably does not cover the costs.

Shakur is not a PPV draw, and Tank has only had a fight during his 12 -year career against Ryan García. Fans who bought the event were probably Instagram followers of 12 million Ryan. Shakur is not popular in social networks like Ryan.

That is why it is crucial that Shakur looks great tonight. He is a minor fighter, who is expected to destroy if he is worth sharing the ring with tank. Shakur is obviously not what Hearn says he is. It is not pound by Libra #1 or one of the best sport fighters. It is just a defensive type, with 90% of its defense game and only 10% is offensive.

For Hearn to have signed Shakur with just a two fight contract, he says a lot. I would do the same. He would sign Shakur with a short contract, would coincide with the opposition of Floff to look good, and then press hard for the tank fight. That’s where I would get profits. After Shakur loses that fight, he would sign it again because he would have been exposed, and the reconstruction would cost him too much money.