{"id":614088,"date":"2026-04-18T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:33:09","slug":"rising-star-with-80-ko-ratio-says-he-has-the-key-to-beat-shakur-stevenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614088\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising star with 80% KO ratio says he has the key to beat Shakur Stevenson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undefeated southpaw Shakur Stevenson<\/a> delivered one of the performances of the year when he became super-lightweight world champion in January, but there is one up-and-coming 140lb contender who believes he knows how to beat the Newark phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Stevenson put together a world-class showing when he outpointed Teofimo Lopez to capture the WBO super-lightweight crown<\/a> and become a four-division world champion. Although, his plans to return to lightweight were scuppered when he was stripped of his WBC 135lb title.<\/p>\n

Instead, despite rumours of a move up to welterweight for potential showdowns with Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn, it appears as those two will instead face one another<\/a>, and that Stevenson will remain at super-lightweight for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

In his new division, there are a host of hot prospects that are desperate to dethrone him, none more popular than Nevada-based Emiliano Vargas, son of two-time super-lightweight world champion, Fernando Vargas.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Ring Magazine<\/a>, Emiliano Vargas explained the weakness in Stevenson\u2019s game which he believes he spotted during his clash with Lopez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that every fighter has a different approach that you have to take towards them. Shakur looked amazing in his last fight, he honestly surprised me and a lot of other people so I give my kudos to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, at the end of the day, I understand that, the right time, God already has it picked. So, if we were to fight with Shakur down the line, we would have to obviously solve that puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, Teofimo was doing a great job when he was going to the body and really, after that, he had his moments to the body and then Shakur would keep him on the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cShakur even said it himself, that he got hit with a body shot one time and he wanted to throw up. I have been hit to the body before and it doesn\u2019t feel good. So, I think that no fighters like body shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the WBO, where Stevenson reigns as champion, 21-year-old Vargas is rated as the #5 contender and subsequently could be given the chance to exploit that weakness and replicate his father\u2019s achievements in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undefeated southpaw Shakur Stevenson delivered one of the performances of the year when he became super-lightweight world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-614088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}