Boxing

Like Floyd Mayweather, Shakur Stevenson Says Olympic Heartbreak "Made Me Who I Am"

Shakur Stevenson thinks having the same Olympic heartache as Floyd Mayweather built him a different fighter.
Apratim Banerjee|
IMAGO / Torsten Helmke

Many believe Shakur Stevenson has the closest boxing style to Floyd Mayweather than anyone else today. Like Mayweather, Stevenson is a master of defense. Thanks to his incredible reflexes he's able to avoid punches very well and land his shots in between.

The similarity, though, runs beyond their fighting styles. Both fighters notably suffered heartbreak in the Olympics. Back in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Floyd 'Money' Mayweather suffered a controversial decision loss in the semi-finals and had to settle for Bronze.

Mayweather was left teary-eyed, but he never lost a fight again once he turned professional, retiring with a perfect 50-0-0 record. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters to ever lace up a pair of gloves.

Shakur Stevenson also came agonizingly close to Olympic gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics, but lost in the final and had to settle for silver. Like Floyd, his defeat was controversial. Stevenson was also left emotional after the loss and also never lost a fight since, currently boasting a 23-0-0 record with 11 knockouts.

Looking back on his Olympic heartbreak, Stevenson told SunSport:

I think that's the reason I am where I'm at today and I think that made me who I am. That Olympics, I know that I should have been an Olympic gold medalist had I did everything that I was supposed to do to become it. But I didn't do everything I was supposed to do to become an Olympic gold medalist.

He added:

So, I think that was the best thing that actually happened to me. It kinda put that motivation in me and that little bug in my back when I went pro to make sure that I make sure all bases are covered. And now that I'm here, I'm a hard mother****er to beat.

Stevenson is way past that Olympic defeat and is currently one of the best fighters in the world. He is the current WBC lightweight champion and has a title defense coming up against William Zepeda on July 12.

Zepeda is 33-0-0 with 27 knockouts. Much has been made of Zepeda's power and pressure style. He is definitely a worthy challenger for Stevenson, however, no one has been able to best Shakur inside the ring so far.

Shakur Stevenson vs William Zepeda is the co-main event of the fight card at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. The event will be headlined by a super middleweight clash between Edgar Berlanga and Hamzah Sheeraz.

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Apratim Banerjee
APRATIM BANERJEE

Apratim is a Boxing and Soccer reporter for On SI. He has been in the industry for five years, having also worked for The Sporting News, Sportskeeda, EssentiallySports, and more. After coming from an engineering background, he started pursuing a career in sports media. Apratim also holds an MSc. Sport Marketing degree from Loughborough University London and is a keen practitioner of social media and digital marketing. In his spare time, Apratim likes to play an array of sports and practice calisthenics. He is also an avid enthusiast of improving his martial arts skills.