WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson 13-0 (7) believes he can be better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather retired with an impeccable record of 50-0 (27) in 2017 after winning world titles in five different weight classes.
“I want to outdo Floyd. And I think I’m, what, 13-0 right now. I think I’m better than what Floyd was when he was 13-0 if I’m being honest. And I think that I could outdo him,” Stevenson said.
“What is he, 50-0? I could outdo that. I want to go past that, that’s my goal. So I want to outdo him…
“Floyd is like the greatest fighter I came up watching. Like Floyd is the greatest fighter from what I got to see, but I just want to be better.
“I mean, I understand the [comparison] because if you watch Floyd career, as he got older and older, he became like a real good defensive fighter, defensive wizard, and I’m real good at that stuff too.
“I feel like Floyd controlled distance with his feet real good and I think I do that just as good as him.”
Stevenson is not the only one who believes he can outdo Mayweather.
Promoter Bob Arum believes the 22-year-old southpaw from Newark, New Jersey shows all the skills to surpass Mayweather’s tremendous achievements.
“Shakur Stevenson is a future star in the sport of boxing, a future superstar,” said Top Rank boss Arum.
“I look at him as the southpaw version of Floyd Mayweather, and I think he’ll exceed the performances by Floyd.
“I think he’s a rare talent. I think he’s a young man that’s growing in size, and I think that 130 pounds will be a brief stop in his career because he’s growing into a welterweight and maybe even a junior middleweight.”
Stevenson. who won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, is slated to face Felix Caraballo 13-1-2 (9) in a 10-round non-title contest at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Tuesday.
He says he isn’t worried about his largely unknown opponent.
“Nah, I ain’t heard of him,” he said. “I watched one round and saw a lot of holes, so I’m going to expose it.
“I noticed that he’s nowhere near on my level. I expect him to come wild, wide and try to land a big shot.”
