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Six years ago, the campaign Shakur Stevenson was promoting in his hometown was Powerade’s “Just a Kid,” and the future Olympian was exactly that, 18 years old and ready to not only take on the world, but show off his peers. that dreaming big and making those dreams come true was not exclusive to certain neighborhoods in certain cities.
Anyone, even a Newark kid, could do it.
“It’s an amazing feeling that I can inspire some of these kids here and help them want to do something in life or be great,” Stevenson said in 2016. “They can think of more than just our city, more than hard times. .”
His mother, Malikah, was there, along with some of her eight siblings, and it was a celebration of someone everyone in attendance knew had the potential to break stereotypes and cross over beyond boxing. All before turning 21 years old. But, at the time, Stevenson kept his focus on what was immediately ahead of him, and his sights were set on the Rio Olympics, particularly Robeisy Ramirez, the 2012 gold medal winner for Cuba.
And while Stevenson was fine, most assumed Ramirez would repeat at 56kg, something that momentarily took the smile off his face that day.
“I’m tough too,” he said. “They say that the Cubans or these other international guys are the best boxers, but we are all human, we all put on our pants the same way, we all bleed the same way. If I get in the ring with a Cuban, the Cuban also gets in the ring with Shakur Stevenson. And he has to realize that.”
They would meet in the gold medal fight in Rio, Ramirez eking out a close decision that left the American with a silver medal and a broken heart. He would not turn professional until April of the following year.
“I think I needed that break,” he said before his second professional fight against Carlos Gastón Suárez in May 2017. “I was very sore after the Olympics; I was sad to lose and my mind wasn’t quite there. So that break was definitely needed, but everything happened the way it was supposed to happen and everything was at the perfect time.”
There has been no heartbreak in the ring since. Eighteen fights, eighteen wins, nine knockouts and a pair of world titles at 130 pounds. Along the way, he has hardly been lost, even as he has steadily climbed the competition from the likes of Christopher Diaz and Joet Gonzalez to Jamel Herring and Oscar Valdez. In fact, when he faced Valdez 30-0 in April, it was not only expected to be Stevenson’s toughest test, but perhaps the fight in which he scored a “1” in his loss column.
It didn’t happen that way. Stevenson dropped Valdez in the sixth round en route to a unanimous decision victory, adding his opponent’s WBC belt to the WBO belt he already held. He was as dominant as Stevenson fans thought he would be, and former world champion Paulie Malignaggi described him as such on a ProBoxTV podcast:
“It seemed like they were doing two different sports there,” said Malignaggi, who hit the nail on the head in that assessment, leaving many wondering what’s left for Stevenson at 130 pounds in terms of challenge. A fight with the emerging Ramirez would have a good story attached, but the Cuban is comfortable campaigning at featherweight. Other than that, champions Hector Luis Garcia and Joe Cordina are undefeated and have had impressive campaigns in 2022, Garcia handing Chris Colbert his first loss while Cordina knocked out Kenichi Ogawa, but neither is moving the needle particularly outside of their respective circles.
Then there’s Brazilian Robson Conceicao, a three-time Olympian and 2016 gold medal winner, who will spoil Stevenson’s second pro fight in Newark and first since 2019 on Friday night. And on his return, the 25-year-old wanted to make one thing clear when he got home.
“I’m a grown man now, there’s no kid on me anymore,” Stevenson said on an episode of Top Rank’s “Real Time” web show. “There is a lot of responsibility, but I feel like I can handle it.”
Much has changed since those pre-Olympic days. Stevenson is a father, engaged to be married (the Valdez fight was so undemanding for him that he proposed to his lady in the ring after the decision was read), and is expected to be one of those young stars to make it. charge of the sport for years to come, as he predicted when he made a trip to Brazil to chase gold. Now it’s almost a full circle. He is fighting a Brazilian and he is fighting at home in Newark. It might even be the toughest test of him, given Conceicao’s amateur pedigree and 17-1 record with the only controversial decision loss coming against Valdez in September of last year. Since then, he has defeated the previously undefeated Xavier Martinez, and now he has his chance against a fighter who could easily be thinking about what will happen in 2023 and beyond if he isn’t careful.
But Stevenson has seen too much to let that happen, and that has little or nothing to do with boxing. In Newark, those who are distracted often get lost. And that could lead to any number of bad things. Stevenson’s mother wasn’t about to let that happen to Shakur or any of his brothers and sisters.
“It’s everything,” he told me in 2016. “I keep them busy and they all do something, so if they get stuck on things, it stops them from running.”
Stevenson was in the boxing gym from the age of five. In many ways, he has never left. That’s why she’s here and not in situations like the one described to me by one of the counselors at the Boys & Girls Club in Newark, Chris Crockett.
“We have ten-year-olds taking care of their mom, dad and two brothers,” Crockett said, “at ten. How is that possible?”
So yes, Stevenson can be just like any other 25-year-old, but with one exception: He never lost sight of what he always wanted for himself. And to the kids of Newark, whom he addressed at the press conference announcing the fight at the Prudential Center.
“All of you kids should keep trying to be cool,” he said. “Strive to be better and I want to be an example for all of you. I want to make sure I do my part.”
