Prize-winner OI-2016the conqueror of two weight divisions, the current unified champion in 59 kg, the young near-pound American Shakur Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) told a funny story about how he was beaten up hard during a sparring session.
“When I was 17 years old, I was engaged in Olympic training center. And immediately after training, they told me that Terence Crawford wanted to talk to me on the phone, –
remembers Shakur. – I was shocked, because the last time we saw each other, I trolled him in every possible way and promised to punish him in sparring. I pick up the phone and tell him boldly: “Kid, where are you? Do you want to dance with me for a couple of rounds?” Well, we got really cheeky with each other and decided to spar. At that time, he gradually turned into a superstar. And during sparring, he made it clear to me that I’m not even close to being the best of the best yet. Honestly? He simply destroyed me, even if you want – he fucked me. We only did 2 or 3 rounds of 4 minutes each. I swear to God, no one has ever humiliated me in sparring in my life. I just couldn’t believe it…”
“Yes, I was still a green kid. But already with might and main sparring with professionals. And this has never happened before – I beat them playfully. I realized that I have something to strive for and promised myself that the second time everything would be different. Since then, I have always stayed close to Terence. And this is perhaps the main reason for my success. He is the one who showed me that there are different levels in this game. Thanks to him, I realized that I needed to go even higher, although for a 17-year-old kid, I was pretty damn good. “Bud” Crawford is like a brother to me. Love this dude,” Stevenson says.
According to him, there was another welterweight with whom it was very difficult to spar: “Jaron Ennis is a damn malicious dude. After all, he knows how to do everything: boxing, gasping. But the worst thing about him is that you can’t visually see how fast his hands are. In the first round of sparring, he only jabbed. And although I box in a smaller weight category, I didn’t have an advantage in speed. Oh, this is his manual speed! Boom Boom Boom. This dude is a real killer. He doesn’t leave the room. Always in shape. This dude also motivates me not like a child. Imagine, he returns to the hall immediately after the fight. And when I see this, I also train longer than usual. Our sparring sessions were very competitive. And he admits that he did not give in to me. Even in amateur gloves, I felt his power.
“Why do I work with fighters who are so much bigger? Yes, I don’t care – I’m ready to spar with everyone, ”says Stevenson.
The American also sparred with the ex-leader P4P rating Vasily Lomachenko. Former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk claims that “Shakur did things with Lomachenko that no one else did with him.” The other day, Stevenson spoke about a possible fight with Gervonta Davis and said: “I’m better than Canelo, better than Tank, better than anyone!”
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