Shakur Stevenson is hitting back at some critics' notion that he's a boring fighter.
In sitting down with DAZN's Akin Reyes and Barak Bess recently, the WBC lightweight world champion especially took offense to rappers Cam'ron and Ma$e who strongly criticized his unanimous decision win over Artem Harutyunyan, even doing a skit on their show "It Is What It Is," showing them sleeping while the fight was on TV in saying the bout lacked fireworks.
Stevenson not only jabbed back at them, but also delved into a history of boxers who were labeled "boring."
"Them guys is clowns to me," Stevenson told Ak and Barak. "They're picking favorites. If they like this guy, they're not gonna like this guy."
The other guy Stevenson is referring to is Gervonta "Tank" Davis.
"It's about they like this guy and not liking this guy and this guy could beat this guy," he continued. "'So now we got to down this guy to big up this guy.' But truthfully, it doesn't have to be that way."
Stevenson added: "Ya'll not the first people to call a young Black fighter boring. Floyd [Mayweather] was called boring, Andre Ward was called boring. Pernell Whitaker, when he got robbed (against Jose Luis Ramirez), they called him boring.
"'Bud' got booed in fights before," he tacked on referencing friend Terence Crawford. "They just don't know the sport of boxing. They playing with the people who want to put that agenda out there, the people who want to go with that narrative to stop me from getting the fights that I want."
While Stevenson noted that even criticism is boosting his name in the sport, he welcomed more pointed critique like that from Roy Jones Jr. who recommended last month on All The Smoke Fight that the Newark, New Jersey fighter adjusts his footwork to become a more potent offensive threat.
"I respect it," Stevenson said. "That's what Roy was saying — 'he's not a boring fighter, look, he just needs to make these tiny adjustments.' The delivery was perfect."
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