Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Mendoza on December 9, 2017

[Ruthless-RKO]

2016 Olympic U.S silver medalist Shakur Stevenson will be fighting next month on December 9 against Oscar Mendoza in 6-round fight on the undercard of the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The unbeaten featherweight prospect Stevenson (3-0, 1 KOs) will be looking to stay perfect against the 26-year-old Mexican Mendoza (4-2, 2 KOs) on the ESPN card.

The promoters at Top Rank are really high on the 20-year-old Stevenson, and they believe him to be a star in the making in the future. Its still too early to tell whether hell achieve the greatness they believe. The featherweight and super featherweight divisions are stacked with talented fighters with amazing boxing ability and tons of heart. If Stevenson fails to rise up to the top of those 2 divisions, it wont be reflection on his lack of ability. Itll be more of a case of those divisions being packed with fighters with the same kind of talent that Stevenson possesses, but with more punching power.

In other fights on the undercard, heavyweight Bryant Jennings (20-2, 11 KOs) will be battling 35-year-old Don Haynesworth (13-1-1, 11 KOs) in an 8-round fight. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is trying to get a title shot for the 33-year-old Jennings in the future. If Arum can rebuild Jennings enough for a title shot against heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, he could get a big payday in that fight.

Other fights on the December 9th card, unbeaten featherweight Christopher Diaz (21-0, 13 KOs) will be battling Casey Ramos (24-1, 6 KOs) in a 10 round fight.

2016 Olympic gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (3-0, 1 KOs) will be fighting Steven Ortiz (7-0, 2 KOs) in an 8 round fight. The 26-year-old Gaibnazarov is fighting in the light welterweight division right now, and he’s someone that might turn out to be a better pro than Shakur Stevenson. Gaibnazarov’s fighting style if more suited to the pros, as he has better power and he’s able to stand and trade with his opponents without having to concentrate solely on defense.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I'm not too sure in regards to Stevenson..



Progression wise, he would be heading into 2 tough divisions.. I can predict those divisions will not get any easier over the next two years. I don't believe he will be fast tracked. He obviously has the amateur experience, but he is 20.. Arum knows boxing well enough not to rush this silver medalist.

He's finishing 2017 with 4 fights. 2018 might see him have around 8 fights, which I see as reasonable. Good exposure on Lomachenko and Crawford undercards.

[Best Coast]

At age 20 there is no need for Stevenson to step up quickly. Even though Gaibnazarov has a style more suitable to the pros, Shakur may be more successful in the long term because his slick-boxing style is more similar to Mayweather, who has taken minimal punishment over the course of his lengthy 20-year pro career.