Trainer Stephen Edwards says that if Shakur Stevenson gets the fight that he’s been pushing for against Gervonta Davis, he’s going to need to make it a “risk-free” performance to avoid getting clipped.

Edwards doubts whether Shakur’s safety-first, point-scoring amateur style will be appreciated by the judges enough for them to give him a decision win over WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs).

Stephen feels the judges and fans in this era don’t appreciate the fighting style that WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) uses. His only avenue of winning is by decision. Shakur doesn’t punch hard enough for him to try and knock Gervonta out.

Mayweather Era vs. Modern Boxing

Despite using the outdated Mayweather-esque fighting style, Shakur has won three division world titles. However, a big reason for that is he didn’t fight great opposition to win those belts. It would be a different story if Shakur went up against the best at 126, 130 and 135 now. It’s likely he’d come up empty in each division unless he picked out the weakest champions.

“I don’t think the style of fighting that Shakur Stevenson would have to fight to win that fight, I don’t think it gets appreciated enough in this era,” said Stephen Edwards to Sean Zittel about the amateur hit-and-don’t get-hit style that Shakur Stevenson uses wouldn’t work with the judges for a fight against Gervonta Davis.

Shakur’s style of fighting is from the Mayweather era, and judges were more willing to tolerate that type of style back then. The sport has evolved since Floyd, and the judges focus more power on power shots unless an A-side fighter. We saw that in Dmitry Bivol’s decision win over Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd. If Bivol wasn’t popular, he’d have lost because Beterbiev landed the harder shots.

Stevenson must use his amateur point-scoring fighting style because he can’t punch hard enough to slug with Gervonta without getting knocked out.

“Risk-Free” Plan

“I think he’s going to have to fight a risk-free fight, score points, a non-violent fight, dumb the fight down and not take any chances. He needs to just score points like amateur boxing,” continued Edwards about how Shakur must fight Tank Davis.

“Dont try and put any power on your shots. Just touch Gervonta and get out of the fight. I think he can win, but I don’t think that style of fighting is appreciated enough for him to win. Shakur isn’t a big puncher, but he’s good at punching to the body. Gervonta Davis is a master counter-puncher. If you reach down to his body, he’s going to clip you.

“I don’t know if the judges will appreciate Shakur enough. He would be a fool to try and change his style to fight Gervonta because if he does that, he could get clipped and everybody is going to laugh at him,” said Edwards.

The judges may not need to score the fight because with Tank’s punching power, he will be loading up on everything he throws. He won’t respect Shakur’s power like he did Lamont Roach because he can only generate punching power when going to the body. Stevenson isn’t crazy enough to target Gervonta’s body like he did against Josh Padley in their fight on February 22nd, because he’ll get countered with something big sooner or later.