Barry Jones has heaped high praise in the direction of Shakur Stevenson this week, comparing him to the legendary Floyd Mayweather.
Stevenson had his first fight at lightweight this weekend, stopping Shuichiro Yoshina in the sixth round in an extremely impressive performance.
Jones was breaking down the 25 year old’s showing on ID Boxing when he made the flattering comparison to Mayweather.
“He’s as close as we’ve seen to Floyd, since Floyd. And I don’t mean Floyd when he was having to adjust when he was a smaller guy, I mean Floyd at super-featherweight.
He knows where he is all the time in that ring, he’s never off balance and knows exactly when to throw the shot. He can also create the opportunity for his shots.
He’s a guy who can do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. He doesn’t take risks, he’s too good and he doesn’t need to.
He’s just a joy to watch, the way he goes about his work.”
After five and a half one sided rounds, during which Yoshido barely landed a glove on Stevenson, referee Allen Huggins waved the contest off to give the Olympic silver medalist his tenth professional stoppage.
Despite his young age, Stevenson is already a two weight world champion, having picked up world titles at both featherweight and super featherweight before making the move up to 135lbs.
His 20 fight CV already boasts wins over well established world level fighters such as Jamel Herring, Oscar Valdez and Robson Conceicao.
Stevenson is widely tipped to face the winner of Devin Haney vs Vasiliy Lomachenko, who lock horns for the undisputed lightweight world title on May 20th in Las Vegas.
Many observers have already made the Newark native a favourite against both men, and there is already a growing belief amongst some fans that there is not a fighter in the division capable of beating him.