Shakur Stevenson Defeats Shuichiro Yoshino by 6th-Round TKO to Improve to 20-0
Shakur Stevenson pushed his record to a perfect 20-0 on Saturday night with a sixth-round TKO win over Shuichiro Yoshino (16-1) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
It didn't take long for Stevenson to start showcasing his skills. After a relatively quiet first round in which he got a read on Yoshino he floored him in the second round with a sharp left hand.
While Stevenson is often associated with being a stick-and-move fighter without power, he stood right in front of his opponent and continued to dish out the punishment.
Yoshino kept coming forward but the results were the same. Stevenson put him on the ground again in the fourth:
By the sixth round the referee saw enough and called an end to the bout.
The fight was Stevenson's first in the lightweight division. After capturing titles in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions, the 135-pound division is the next challenge for the 25-year-old.
Yoshino was a quality opponent who ranked No. 9 in Ring Magazine's lightweight rankings. Twelve of his 16 wins came by way of knockout.
But there are much bigger challenges on the horizon for the Top Rank fighter. The win makes him the next WBC mandatory lightweight challenger, and he's made no bones about what his goals are in the new weight class.
"I'm looking to become the top fighter at lightweight. The division is loaded right now, and I'm coming to knock off anyone who's in my way," he said, per Mike Coppinger of ESPN.
That title will be on the line when Devin Haney fights Vasiliy Lomachenko. However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum doesn't anticipate that Haney is going to stay at 135 pounds, so the title could be vacated.
Either way, Stevenson's spot in the lightweight title picture is secured, and he becomes an interesting figure in an already-loaded division.
