Shakur Stevenson eager to earn ‘some real respect’ amid lightweight debut

Shakur Stevenson feels people forgot. 

He feels they forgot about just how talented he is at such a young age. 

That they forgot what he’s achieved inside the ring. 

That they forgot where he belongs in pound-for-pound lists among the best boxers in the entire sport. 

As he gets set to get his feet wet in a new division, he’s eager to provide an emphatic reminder. 

The 25-year-old Stevenson, who was a champion at featherweight and a unified champion at super featherweight, now enters his first bout at lightweight against veteran contender Shuichiro Yoshino in a 12-round WBC title eliminator. 

It’s the main event on Top Rank’s card Saturday night (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET) at the Prudential Center in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark. 

Stevenson was stripped of his WBC and WBO super featherweight belts ahead of his first unified title defense in September after failing to make weight. 

He still cruised to a unanimous decision over Robson Conceicao to improve to 19-0, but since he was no longer a champion and could no longer make the 135-pound limit, it prompted his move up to the star-studded lightweight division.  

He likely would have moved up to lightweight for his next bout, or soon thereafter, anyway. 

But in a new division, Stevenson finds himself again needing to work his way up the rankings before earning a bout against the division’s top dogs.

No longer a champion, he’s also seen the buzz around his name disappear. 

“It’s like a restart,” Stevenson told The Post. “It’s weird, because when you’re a champion they respect you at a whole different level. When I was champion down there, I was on pound-for-pound [lists] and all this stuff. Lately, you don’t hear nobody say pound-for-pound when it comes to my name, just because I don’t have the belts anymore and I moved up to a new division. 

“It made me really think of Roy Jones when he made that song ‘Y’all must’ve forgot.’ I think about that because it’s like they forget. They just forget who you are, what you’ve done, your accomplishments, it don’t mean nothing once you move up. It don’t mean nothing once you don’t have a belt anymore. It’s like you’re not nobody. I just think the fans forget, and the boxing world forgets. It’s time to wake them back up, that’s all it is. 

“I look at it, I ain’t too mad about it, I really don’t care. Actually, nah, I’m lying. I do care. I care, and since I do care, I’ve got to wake them up. I gotta make them remember who I am. Now at 135 [pounds], I’ve got to open their eyes up a little bit more and make sure they put some real respect on my name.”

Stevenson feels like his new 135-pound lightweight division is his ideal and natural weight class, and anticipates continuing to grow into the new weight.

He no longer has to struggle to make weight, like he did before his last bout, and said that he’s actually currently lighter than he was ahead of the Conceicao fight. 

More importantly, beyond his weight, the lightweight division offers Stevenson potential high-stakes bouts that he would not be able to find in his previous two divisions. 

As one of the most loaded divisions in boxing with some of the biggest names in the sport, most of whom are around Stevenson’s age, some of the sport’s most anticipated matchups loom for Stevenson as long as he gets through Yoshino (16-0). 

Undisputed champion Devin Haney is set to defend his titles in May against Vasiliy Lomachenko, and Stevenson believes he’s strongly in position – and deserving – to fight the winner. 

Before that, Gervonta Davis will fight Ryan Garcia, both of whom rank near the top of the lightweight rankings, in one of the biggest fights of the year later this month.

All are among the biggest attractions in the sport.  

“Honestly, I look at it this way. I feel as though whenever I get to a weight class, all I know is to take over,” Stevenson said. “I don’t know how to go to a weight class and be just a regular guy, or the same as everybody else. I’m down to fight these dudes, and I’m down to beat these dudes and become a household name in the sport of boxing. 

“That’s all I know, that’s who I am as an individual. … That’s just who I am. I gotta go there and I gotta see what the division is about. So let’s see what these dudes are about, I’m about it.”

As he begins his tenure in a new, unfamiliar weight class, Stevenson will be in a familiar environment. 

It’ll be Stevenson’s third fight at the Prudential Center in his hometown, and second in a row. 

“I think the most Newark thing about me is that I represent my city the way that I do,” Stevenson said. ”If you’re from Newark, you’re going to represent Newark. … I put my city on my back. I represent us no matter wherever I go.”