Shakur Stevenson posted his reaction to the reported 340,000 PPV buys generated for the February 22nd event headlined by the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch in Riyadh.

Interestingly, Stevenson appeared to attribute the event’s success to himself after one of his glazing followers said that  he’d “silenced the critics” with the “PPV Hits 340,000 buys.” Shakur was not the main event.

Main Event Draw

People that ordered the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 event were almost surely doing it because they wanted to see the headliner. Shakur’s presence on the card had created very little interest from fans, even before his originally scheduled opponent, Floyd Schofield, pulled out of the fight due to a mysterious illness.

The reality is that WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) played a very little part in the success of the February 22nd event on DAZN PPV because his fight against the electrician, Josh Padley, was buried on the undercard  Shakur’s fight with the little known part-time fighter, Padley (15-1, 4 KOs) was considered filler. It was just there to take up space.

Those were worldwide PPV numbers, NOT U.S figures. The U.S buys are rumored to be 50K, which are beyond horrible. To be that low, it signals that American boxing fans viewed this event as unworthy to order, even at the reasonable bargain basement price of $25.99.

Shakur is not a pay-per-view fighter, and it’s likely that he never will be because his fighting style isn’t one that the U.S fans are interested in watching. He’s not a knockout puncher, and the running around the ring stuff that he does has led to him being booed in his fights.

Thankfully, Stevenson didn’t get booed in Riyadh last February, but that’s because the fans there are polite. They were likely silently booing in their heads.

Beat the odds do numbers and remain humble! https://t.co/jluLi7hGDp

— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) April 2, 2025