Shakur Stevenson Scores Knockout Calls Out Selby & Warrington

Shakur Stevenson Scores Knockout Calls Out Selby & Warrington

By Gary Kittilsen

21-year old silver medallist and undefeated featherweight Shakur Stevenson is regarded by many as the top American prospect in the sport. He certainly backed up that reputation on the Terence Crawford/David Benavidez undercard in Omaha Nebraska.

In a major step up fight, Stevenson took on rugged veteran Viorel Simion in what was by far the toughest test of his young career. Stevenson was originally set to face Duarn Vue in his first scheduled 10-rounder, but Vue suffered an eye injury and was forced to pull out of the fight and was replaced by the more experienced and highly regarded Viorel Simion.

Simion had compiled a record of 21-2 entering Saturday’s fight having lost just two competitive decisions to Lee Selby and Scott Quigg, two former world champions.

Simion, who had never been stopped or even knocked down was supposed to test the young Stevenson and push him into the later rounds. The American prospect far surpassed any and all expectations on Saturday night in dropping and destroying Simion in one-round.

Stevenson dropped his opponent three times in all. Scoring his first knockdown midway through the opening round with a giant right hook that Simion never appeared to fully recover from, despite beating the count Simion never seemed to get his legs backs and was knocked down for a second time from a flurry of punches just moments later and was once again able to beat the ref’s count. The third and final knockdown was another perfectly placed right-hook that caught Simion square on the chin and sent him back to the canvas but again beat Referee Curtis Thrasher’s count. This time after a long look the referee opted to waive it off and bring a halt to the bout giving Stevenson a knockout victory and improving his unbeaten record to 9-0 (5).

Following the dominating victory, the sky is the limit for the young prospect who will have plenty of options moving forward. In the post-fight interview when asked about who he may want to fight next, Stevenson called out two high profile UK fighters, former IBF Lee Selby as well as the current champ Josh Warrington who won the IBF strap off of Selby by split decision back in May of this year at the Elland Road Football Ground in Leeds.