Shakur Stevenson was frustrated that he didn't stop Artem Harutyunyan on Saturday night.
But he did piece together a boxing clinic in cruising toward a unanimous decision victory at the Prudential Center in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey. Judges scored it 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112 all in Stevenson's favor as he successfully defended his WBC lightweight world championship. (DAZN had it 119-109 for Stevenson).
After thoroughly dominating Harutyunyan, Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) maintained that the only way critics and fans can see his true greatness is if he gets paired with better competition.
"I want to fight the best fighters in boxing," Stevenson told ESPN after his win. "That's how you're going to get to see the best version of me — when you put me in the ring with somebody else that wants to fight back and compete."
On possible fights against Gervonta "Tank" Davis and Vasiliy Lomachenko, he added: "If they don't fight me, they don't fight me. I'm just going to stay in the gym and stay ready."
It took Stevenson a few rounds to download information before he began gaining momentum and banking rounds. The sixth and seventh rounds had the champion depositing hard shots to the body that hurt Harutyunyan and curbed his aggression as Stevenson spent the remainder of the fight, splitting the challenger's guard with the jab and piecing together stinging combinations that the outclassed Armenian fighter had zero answers for.
By the end of the bout, Stevenson had landed 44 percent of his power punches to Harutyunyan's 18 percent.
At times, the Newark, New Jersey crowd peppered the fighters with boos, though Stevenson felt they were intended more for Harutyunyan.
"It's kind of hard to prove it if you don't got a fighter trying to fight back," he said about attempting to show he's the man at 135 pounds. "He's just trying to make sure he survives."
Here's how the entire Stevenson vs. Harutyunyan main card went.