{"id":504455,"date":"2026-03-31T02:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504455\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:27:14","slug":"shakur-stevenson-says-he-will-study-moses-itauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504455\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson Says He Will Study Moses Itauma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p> The comment came through a brief exchange online following Itauma\u2019s recent appearance in Saudi Arabia, where he had spoken about the fighters he watches and learns from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told me I\u2019m one of his fav fighters in Saudi,\u201d Shakur said on X. \u201cI\u2019m bout to study him heavy too now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Shakur says he is going to \u201cstudy him heavy,\u201d he is essentially saying, \u201cI\u2019ve already mastered this style, and I want to see how this kid is applying my principles in a different weight class.\u201d It is a way for Shakur to:<\/p>\n<p>By \u201cstudying\u201d a heavyweight, he\u2019s implying his high-IQ style is the gold standard for all divisions. It\u2019s a way of validating his own genius.<\/p>\n<p>If Itauma actually turns out to be great, Shakur can say he saw it first. If Itauma flops, Shakur can just stop mentioning him.<\/p>\n<p>For a prospect who has yet to be pushed into the deep water of championship rounds, having a pound-for-pound talent like Stevenson \u201cstudy him heavy\u201d is a massive validation. It suggests that Itauma\u2019s fundamentals are so sound that they are visible to the most critical eyes in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudying\u201d someone\u2019s style doesn\u2019t fix their chin or their lack of experience against top-tier Eastern European or American amateurs. Shakur can study Itauma all he wants, but that won\u2019t help Itauma the next time a fighter like Jermaine Franklin decides to actually throw back and test that defense.<\/p>\n<p>As a pro, Itauma still hasn\u2019t fought any of the high-caliber contenders. Franklin was chosen from the bottom of the top tier. Itauma didn\u2019t have the typical 100+ fight amateur career where he was constantly fighting the Cuban or Uzbek machines. He turned pro at 18, choosing to get paid to learn rather than grinding through an Olympic cycle.<\/p>\n<p>It feels like a mutual admiration society designed to keep both their names in the \u201chigh-IQ\u201d conversation, even if one of them is still very much an unproven commodity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The comment came through a brief exchange online following Itauma\u2019s recent appearance in Saudi Arabia, where he had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-504455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}