Shakur Stevenson looked to continue his winning ways on Friday when he took on Robson Conceicao from the Prudential Center in his hometown of Newark, N.J. The bout had been scheduled as a WBC, WBO, and Ring Magazine junior lightweight title defense for Stevenson. But the 25-year-old Stevenson weighed in on Thursday at 131.6 pounds, 1.6 pounds over the weight class limit. Because of the miss, Stevenson was stripped of the belts.
Missing weight didn't affect Stevenson's performance inside the ring as he dominated from start to finish, knocking Conceicao down and using his superior boxing skills to overwhelm Conceicao for a lopsided unanimous decision win (118-108, 117-109, 117-109). DAZN had the fight scored 119-107 for Stevenson. Because Stevenson won, the WBC and WBO belts remain vacant.
Beyond the roughhouse tactics from Conceicao, which led to a hip toss from Stevenson that resulted in him being docked a point by the referee in the ninth round, Stevenson provided all the action, including the lone knockdown at the end of the fourth round when a thudding body shot sent Conceicao to the mat.
After the weight miss on Thursday, Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) declared he would be moving up to lightweight, where he has a bevy of options that include Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, and Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Here is what happened at Shakur Stevenson vs. Robson Conceicao