By: Sean Crose<\/p>\n
Some argue he\u2019s the best fighter in the world at the moment. Whether or not that\u2019s true there\u2019s no doubt that Shakur Stevenson is one of the most highly regarded proponents of today\u2019s fight game. Dana White and his burgeoning Zuffa Boxing certainly thinks Stevenson is a legit star of the sweet science. That\u2019s why he just signed Stevenson to his company. This is big news in that it unofficially makes Zuffa one of the major players in boxing. Big names are one thing \u2013 names like Shakur Stevenson are another thing entirely. Zuffa is now among the sport\u2019s big boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cShakur is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world,\u201d said White, via Sky Sports. \u201cHe\u2019s 29 years old, undefeated and already a four-division world champion. This is a massive signing.\u201d Stevenson himself is quite pleased with the arrangement. \u201cLine them up, one by one,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019ll beat all the top guys once I get them in front of me.\u201d What\u2019s more, the New Jersey native, who has undoubtedly just earned himself a massive sum of money, is oozing with confidence.\u00a0 \u201cWith Zuffa Boxing,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m going to go after the biggest fights in the sport, and I will become the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Stevenson is clearly happy to be aligned with him, the brash White is a controversial figure \u2013 not only in boxing, but also in the UFC, where he has seemingly ruled supreme for years. If there was a word that may well describe White it might be aggressive \u2013 aggressive in opinion, aggressive in ambition and aggressive in presentation (he always looks as if he wouldn\u2019t know what a suit was if you asked him). He\u2019s also said to have treated his UFC fighters in a less than stellar fashion at times.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s doubtful Stevenson will have a lot to complain about regarding his paychecks. Say what one will about White but he\u2019s a keen man. Boxing isn\u2019t mixed martial arts \u2013 something White is no doubt keenly aware of. Boxers of the highest order bring in mountains of cash. With few exceptions, that\u2019s not true of the UFC. White has long wanted to be a big part of the boxing world, however, and it\u2019s clear at this point he\u2019s going to adjust his business style to become more palatable to the sport\u2019s top stars.<\/p>\n
And then what? It\u2019s hard to tell, really. Boxing is nothing if not enigmatic and seemingly forever in flux. It\u2019s hard to imagine White turning the entire sport of boxing into his fiefdom, as he\u2019s arguably done with mixed martial arts. MMA is big, but boxing truly is global. Unlike the UFC, boxing has a trillion pieces all moving at once. Furthermore, White isn\u2019t the only true power player in boxing. Unlike the UFC, there\u2019s other players in the game who are essentially as powerful as White himself now is. One gets the feeling White is going to want to play niece if he truly wants to be a sweet science power player.<\/p>\n
None of this really matters to Shakur, of course, at least at the present time. He\u2019s going to get paid a mint to ply a trade he\u2019s mastered. Whether Zuffa rises or falls, Stevenson will remain a hot property as long as he keeps winning in high fashion, as he did against Teofimo Lopez earlier this year. And that is notable at this time \u2013 White can\u2019t wield the kind of power in boxing as he has in the UFC. There\u2019s too many boxers and promotional entities for that to be the case. Should White be aware of this like he most likely is, he may well do quite well in the venerable sport of boxing.<\/p>\n
Shakur Stevenson certainly seems to think he will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Sean Crose Some argue he\u2019s the best fighter in the world at the moment. Whether or not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-792248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792248","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=792248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}