Boxing
Mercado explains why he's not a fan of how Stevenson conducts his business
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Shakur Stevenson is widely recognized as one of boxing's top pound-for-pound fighters. He's a four-division world champion and is currently the WBO and Ring Magazine super lightweight champion after defeating Teofimo Lopez back at the end of January on DAZN.
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Fights against Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and O'Shaquie Foster didn't come to fruition, which led Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) to sign with Zuffa Boxing. Stevenson doesn't have a fight announced for his debut with the upstart promotion. But there's a name that has been looking for a fight with him.
The undefeated 140-pound rising star Tito Mercado (19-0, 18 KOs) makes his return on Saturday in the co-main event of the Claressa Shields vs. Kaye Scott card when he meets former Garcia opponent Emmanuel Tagoe from State Farm Arena in Atlanta, live on DAZN.
The goal for Mercado is to get a world title. He has called out Stevenson and the other top names in the division, but they haven't looked his way.
"I think everybody in the top 10 is ducking," Mercado told DAZN News. "I think everybody. Obviously there's some fighters that might be willing to fight. I think guys like (Gary) Antuanne Russell (WBA champion). He looks like a guy that, from what it looks like, is willing to take hard fights. But guys like Shakur. When I called him out last year when I fought (Jose) Pedraza, he was talking about, "Oh, he's at 140. What are we talking about? He's too big.'
"But then he goes up to 140 and fights in my weight class. He was better off saying that I'm not a big name or something. He was better off saying something like that because, obviously, if you're not a hardcore boxing fan, I haven't had a big promoter in my whole career, so maybe you might not have seen me. But he was talking about I'm too big, this and that. But he goes up to 140 and fights a little midget in Teofimo Lopez, and obviously that's a tailor-made fight for him.
"But to me, that's a duck. There are certain guys I think might be willing to fight, but as far as Shakur, (Richardson) Hitchens, Keyshawn (Davis), and Frank Martin, I think all those guys are ducks."
When Stevenson's name is brought up, you could feel he's the one who gets Mercado's blood boiling the most. In the past, Mercado and Stevenson went back and forth on Twitter as the former has been critical of the latter's fighting style. Apparently, the exchanges led to Stevenson blocking Mercado on the social media app.
"Look, me and Shakur went back and forth," Mercado admitted. "I know all these guys go back and forth with each other. I've seen some nasty comments that they made to each other, and they still be replying to each other nonstop. But for me, for some reason, when I comment, they get very, very bothered. And I guess it bothered the four-time world champion so bad that Shakur had to block me."
The knock on Stevenson has been that he talks a lot of trash in the case of his exchanges with Haney, Benn, and Foster. In regard to Haney, Stevenson kept insisting a proposed fight with the WBO welterweight champion take place at 144 pounds instead of the weight class limit of 147.
"I think Shakur runs his mouth too much, and I don't really think he's like that," Mercado said. "I think they try to save him for a little while because if I get my hands on him, it's a wrap."
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Watch Moses Itauma take the next step in his unstoppable career against Filip Hrgovic on Saturday, August 29, only on DAZN.
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