Shakur Stevenson has to provide entertainment in his two-fight deal with Matchroom

Promoter Eddie Hearn believes that with the recent signing of Shakur Stevenson to his Matchroom promotion, he has signed a potentially “unbeatable” future “world star”.

High pressure audition

With Hearn over-praising Shakur, he is under a lot of pressure for his October 12 fight for the promoter against former IBF super-featherweight champion Joe Cordina. A fighter like Shakur, who has repeatedly put in lackluster performances in his last three fights, puts Hearn in a difficult position where he must try to live up to his critics.

2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur has signed a two-fight deal with Hearn, which clearly means he will have to impress to land a lucrative long-term contract. These first two fights will be auditions for Shakur, where he will have to be entertaining.

Stevenson will probably lose one of the two fights and Hearn will say goodbye to him as he realises he is not who he thought he was. He has a good amateur style but it is only effective against non-punchers.

His limitations became apparent when he fought brawlers Edwin De Los Santos and Jeremiah Nakathila. Stevenson had to run all night during these fights and was loudly booed by the fans for not standing his ground and fighting.

Shakur is not an entertaining fighter unless he is facing a slower, weaker opponent, such as in his fights against Jamel Herring and Shuichiro Yoshino.

Unfavorable pairings

• Joe Cordina: A gift for Shakur's first two-fight deal with Matchroom.
• William Zepeda: This is the fight that could throw Shakur off his stride, as he is facing a high-pressure fighter that he has always struggled against. Shakur will not be able to match Zepeda like he did with his last opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, as the latter has too much power and throws too many punches. It is possible that Shakur will get beat and be in the same boat as Devin Haney.

Shakur will face Joe Cordina on October 12 as the support act for Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Cordina, 32, won't do much to boost Shakur's popularity no matter how good he looks in this fight. Former IBF super featherweight champion Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) lost his last fight on May 18 by eighth-round knockout to 35-year-old Anthony Cacace.

If the idea was to pit Shakur against a British fighter in the 130-pound division, Hearn should have used Cacace instead of Cordina. It still wouldn't make sense if the goal is to make Shakur a world star,” but at least he would be facing someone who has a win coming off of him, rather than a knockout loss.

“I know how good this kid is. He may be unbeatable. I know he's a star pound for pound,” Eddie Hearn said on the Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel, highlighting Shakur Stevenson's potential. “There's something about Shakur's mentality that gives me confidence that he can beat anyone.”

“I think he was massively undervalued and should not just be an American superstar, but a global superstar,” Hearn said of Shakur.

Hearn sees something in WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) that suggests he's on the verge of glory and believes he can bring that to light. I don't think he can. Shakur is too limited as a fighter and will do anything to avoid exchanging blows with his opponents.

Hearn would look like a genius if he could turn Shakur into the second generation Floyd Mayweather Jr., but that seems unlikely. Floyd was entertaining from the start when he turned pro. He only became boring later in his career as he got older and adopted the safety style that Shakur uses today.

His hit-and-run style is not conducive to building a “world star,” or even a local or national star in the U.S. If Shakur was a must-see TV star, Top Rank would never have let him get away. They would have paid him a goldmine to stay, but they didn't; the reason is obvious. He's boring and fans don't want to see him.