On Saturday, July 6, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBC lightweight title against Armenian-born German Artem Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs). This card, promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., will be shown live on ESPN in the US and Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland.
A 2016 Olympic silver medalist as a bantamweight, Stevenson turned professional with a ready-made fanfare and plenty of promise, then won world titles at featherweight, super featherweight, and lightweight to become a three-weight world champion. Stevenson’s last outing was an underwhelming unanimous decision win against Edwin De Los Santos in November 2023. Harutyunyan’s last fight was a much more entertaining unanimous decision loss to Frank Martin in July 2023, taking a knee in the final round. Stevenson will be looking to impress and make a statement, with potential huge fights on the horizon in a stacked division. Harutyunyan will be looking to bolster his career with a huge upset win and dismiss his standing as a mere stepping stone to the division’s summit. Harutyunyan has some amateur pedigree of his own, representing Germany at the 2016 Olympics, winning a bronze medal as a light welterweight.
Stevenson Must Do Better Than His Last Fight
Stevenson’s terrible performance against De Los Santos, followed by the fact that he is about to be a promotional free agent, means this is a significant fight for Stevenson if he wants to be in the big fights against the other top lightweights. Furthermore, he’ll also be fighting in front of his hometown crowd, so he has to impress. Stevenson has now had two uninspiring performances in an ESPN-televised main event. He had previously been the subject of plenty of criticism after employing a back-foot approach for most of his convincing decision victory against Jeremiah Nakathila in June 2021. Shakur won with scores of 120-107 on all three scorecards and even dropped Nakathila in the fourth round. However, Shakur cautiously boxed the hard-hitting Namibian challenger over the second half after Nakathila caught Stevenson with a right hand late in the sixth round.
Dominant performances against the likes of Jamel Herring and Oscar Valdez pointed to a potential pound-for-pound star and the future of boxing, and now that he’s at lightweight, Stevenson needs to show the world that he is worth watching. Ensuring W’s is good, but if he is to fulfill his initial promise, he must show he is capable of filling arenas and selling pay-per-views. Winning is not enough. For both fans and promoters, it is how a boxer wins that matters the most.
Stevenson & Harutyunyan Are Motivated To Put On A Show
Shakur appears motivated to make a statement whilst aware of the challenge ahead. Speaking on Top Rank Boxing’s Real Time YouTube series, Stevenson said: “This dude (Harutyunyan) is a good fighter. I think a lot of people in public don’t know him, so they don’t understand how good he is, but I think right now, the mode that I’m in, what I got going on in my brain, I want to come and put punishment on him. It may start off as a boxing match, then I might just start beating the s**t out of him.”
At the final pre-fight press conference, Harutyunyan said: “You have to give him (Stevenson) respect. Many fighters don’t want to fight with him; like Shakur once said, they’re all ducking, I think that’s right, but I took this opportunity. I want to make this fight happen. I want to show the fans a good boxing match.”
Stevenson enters this fight as a lopsided favorite, and Harutyunyan is not overselling his chances, but the German is a quality operator and no slouch by any means. He is a come-forward, aggressive fighter with natural substance to his game. Harutyunyan is very good at closing distances, is quick on his feet, attacks the body well, is a great combination puncher, and works at angles adeptly. The only issue for the 33-year-old is that this has worked against a certain level of opposition. Stevenson is a pound-for-pound star of the sport for good reason. His ring IQ, speed, footwork, and control of range and distance are as good as it gets in the sport today.
Ultimately, Stevenson is a top-level operator and a puzzle that few have come close to solving yet, and he should have enough to secure a convincing win on the scorecards after a technical affair.
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