A successful homecoming it was as Shakur Stevenson’s (20-0, 10 KOs) lightweight debut which saw him stop Shuichiro Yoshino (16-1, 12 KOs) at 1:35 of round six, in the main event of a fight card from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The bout was as one-sided as could be as Stevenson dropped Yoshino in the second round, as well as the fourth round and continued to dish out punishment throughout each and every round. It was a fight in which the difference in levels was rather clear, as Stevenson just appeared a lot more fundamentally sound than Yoshino.
“He felt my power,“ said Stevenson. “I sat down on a couple of punches and dropped him. Honestly I wanted the ref to let go on a little bit longer, because I just caught my second wind - I was going to put him out."
The punch stats saw Stevenson land 104 power punches out of 174 thrown, as opposed Yoshino who landed 34 out of 243. The bigger story was Stevenson landed 50% of his total punches whereas his opponent only landed 11%.
“Just tell all [them] lightweights get ready,” said the Stevenson in front of his hometown crowd. “I’m waiting for them, I can’t wait for them to finish the fights they have going on, then it is my turn.”
Broadcaster Mark Kriegel commented during the telecast that Bill Haney, father, trainer and manager of Devin Haney assured him that Haney will not be moving up after his fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko. If Haney were to win, that would mean Shakur Stevenson would be next up to face Haney. When asked about Stevenson welcomed the fight.
