Who do you like if Devin Haney vs Shakur Stevenson gets signed?<\/p>\n
There is a belief in our comments section that I don\u2019t like watching Devin Haney\u2019s fights, and that I think he\u2019s overrated, and that\u2019s unfair. I hate watching most of Devin Haney\u2019s fights, and I think he\u2019s very good at what he does, too.<\/p>\n
And in this case, and there aren\u2019t many cases like it, I don\u2019t think what he does will amount to much within this specific matchup. Haney\u2019s jab-and-clinch style really is effective, and this isn\u2019t to make out like Stevenson is routinely exciting to watch, either, he isn\u2019t, but Shakur has shown more gears he can go to, and I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve seen all the gears he can go to, either.<\/p>\n
I happen to think it\u2019s a fight that might bring out the best in both guys and be more \u201centertaining\u201d or \u201cwatchable\u201d than most will suspect, though. They\u2019re not going to go out and have a slugfest, but there is ego here. These guys both fashion themselves as master technicians, and they might really look to prove a point with a little more output, a little more tactical aggression. I think you\u2019d need to see Haney start a bit faster than normal to get there, though; if Devin comes out and fights with his normal tempo, he\u2019s going to find it very hard to get any momentum, and he might be out of the race before the eighth round starts.<\/p>\n
I think Shakur wins wide either way. It\u2019s really nothing against Devin here. I just believe that Shakur Stevenson is every bit as good as he says he is.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t deny the fact I think this potential matchup has all the makings for terrible viewing from a fan\u2019s perspective, and this is coming from someone who really wanted to see the Lomachenko vs Rigdondeaux fight happen. In that instance I couldn\u2019t help but be intrigued enough to want to see the chess match play out between two of boxing\u2019s best minds in the ring, even if there was a physical gap in size between them. That fight turned out to be quite underwhelming, no doubt, and for me this fight has significantly less intrigue.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m strictly assessing the matchup between Devin and Shakur, I just feel like Shakur would have the edge. Shakur is clearly the better defensive fighter and while Devin may have a really good jab, that accounts for just about all of his offensive attack. I just have a hard time really seeing Devin having any consistent success landing that jab with any regularity, which is going to make it hard for him to tally up points. Shakur is no offensive whirlwind himself, but I think his offense mixed with his defense gives him a clearer path to victory.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t \u201clike\u201d either of them. I\u2019d rather a team of guys who get erections from Dale Carnegie books pitch me a timeshare presentation than watch Devin Haney fight Shakur Stevenson.<\/p>\n
BUT, if I\u2019m picking a winner? Shakur. Shakur evolved into the highest and best version of what Devin Haney dreamed of being back in his most promising era. Even the thought of this fight makes me feel like I need a hug, though. And, not from either of these guys. I\u2019d obviously want the hug to stop at some point.<\/p>\n
Shakur Stevenson and it\u2019s not close.<\/p>\n
I hold deep antipathy for Shakur Stevenson on both a moral<\/a> and spoiled consumer<\/a> level. I am terrible at keeping my personal feelings separate from my professional analysis, as my long string of picking against the Diaz brothers on MMA Mania can attest. When even I can accept that this guy\u2019s the goods, it means something.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just not clear to me what Haney is supposed to do in this matchup unless the referee allows the sort of extended clinching you\u2019d need an intimacy coordinator to manage. He\u2019s the bigger man, but Stevenson\u2019s never needed a knockout and it\u2019s not like a few pounds\u2019 size difference is going to cure Haney of the feather fists that\u2019ve sent him to the scorecards 11 straight times over the last seven years. Stevenson has him sorely outclassed in Haney\u2019s preferred slow-paced slog and proved against William Zepeda that he can knuckle down and work his magic against someone unafraid to bring the fight to him.<\/p>\n Stranger things have happened, arguably, but when your only plausible path to victory against Shakur Stevenson is to make the fight even more unwatchable than Stevenson\u2019s benchmark, it doesn\u2019t inspire a ton of confidence. Stevenson UD, Haney gets three rounds if the judges are participation trophy types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who do you like if Devin Haney vs Shakur Stevenson gets signed? There is a belief in our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,16145,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-932868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-commentary-opinion","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}