A boxer’s reputation can often swing considerably after one result, good or bad.
It has happened many times in the past where a good win can suddenly elevate a boxer to all new levels of hype, or a close run loss can see them written off entirely. For that reason, timing is everything in a boxer’s career – pick the right opponent at the right time and a fighter can catapult themselves to all new levels, but step up too early and they could find themselves falling bay down the rankings.
With that in mind, former multi-weight champion James Toney was asked by FightHUbTV what he thought about a potential fight between lightweight stars Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, who named himself the hardest puncher in boxing after stopping Frank Martin at the weekend to defend his world title.
“Shakur is a good fighter but Shakur ain’t ready for that. Look, everybody, all these so-called experts don’t know s**t about boxing but no it don’t work that way. Shakur, a young fighter, when it’s time to make that move but right now Tank he got the momentum.”
He then explained the consequences of taking the fight now. He outlined why it would be a bad move while using former welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr, who lost to Terence Crawford in an undisputed fight last summer, and in Toney’s opinion is now ‘done’.
“It’d be bad for him, for Shakur, he’d ruin his whole career. Like Spence, he wasn’t ready. You saw what happened to him. Spence went a little bit insane. He’s done.”
Spence has yet to return to the ring following his loss to Crawford but is expected to take on WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora in October in his home state of Texas.
