On the night of July 7th, American WBC lightweight champion (up to 61.2 kg) Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) won a unanimous decision against Germany's Artem Harutyunyan (12-2, 7 KOs) to defend his title.
Shakur, who entered the fight against Harutyunyan wearing shorts with the word "Twiterson," posted his first review of the fight on his Twitter:
"The most hated man in the sport, I’m thankful for that... Big respect to Artem, he came in shape and did his best last night, I respect that.
Special thanks to those who support me, you’re the ones who push me forward. We are still undefeated, and it will always be that way! Tell your favorite fighters to jump in the ring, I’ll be waiting and I’ll be ready. Thank you all for the good and the bad."
Later, Stevenson responded to a tweet by Frank Martin (18-1, 12 KOs), who used a sleeping emoji, implying the fight was boring:
"This n***s fought Artem to death (won against Harutyunyan by unanimous decision in July 2023), won 4, maybe 5 rounds, and now writes this... Are you alive, n***s? I thought you died a few weeks ago. How much recovery time did they give you before your next fight?"
Fans also asked if a fight with WBO champion Denys Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) was possible, considering "Top Rank is protecting Vasyl Lomachenko":
"Top Rank’s goal is to push me out, but there’s one problem: I’m still the WBC champion, and none of the fighters in their rankings can beat me."
Shakur also addressed the incident when fans began leaving the arena during the 12th round, not waiting for the final bell:
"I wonder how much they paid those f****** n****rs to leave all at once, and ESPN showed it during the broadcast?".
The fight took place in Shakur Stevenson's hometown of Newark, USA, but due to an unconvincing performance, some fans left the show before the fight ended. We previously provided the main fight statistics of Stevenson vs. Harutyunyan.