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By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson reacted to social media post of Oscar Valdez enjoying a cup of coffee on Saturday by warning him to make sure “it’s clean” because he doesn’t want another “tea situation” like what happened a month before his last fight against Robson Conceicao on September 10th.
What Shakur (17-0, 9 KOs) is referring to is Valdez testing positive for the banned substance phentermine, which somehow made its way into the tea that he’d drank.
It’s important that WBC super featherweight champion Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) not have any similar tea situations because he’s set to face WBO 30-lb champion Stevenson in a two-belt unification fight on April 30th on ESPN & ESPN Deportes on Saturday, April 30th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Stevenson, 24, says he’s been chasing Valdez since 2019 when he was his mandatory for his then WBO 126-lb title.
Instead of Valdez facing Shakur, he vacated his WBO featherweight title and moved up to 130, and captured the WBC super featherweight title from champion Miguel Berchelt on February 20, 2021.
Hey champ make sure yo coffee is clean.. We don’t want the tea situation to happen all over again 😩 https://t.co/7fzT1XZ00r
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) February 20, 2022
Shakur wants Valdez’s WBC title to add to his collection of belts, and that’s why he’s making sure no more mishaps go down with the tea.
“You don’t hear a lot of people calling me out,” said Shakur Stevenson to Relentless Media Group. “People don’t like to lose, and you got to realize that I embarrass people. I don’t just beat people.
“Sometimes people get knocked out, and it’s embarrassing to get punched on with combination after combination for ten rounds or however long you last in the ring. A lot of people don’t want to be embarrassed.
“He’s just another fighter,” said Shakur when asked about his thoughts on Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. “All these dudes are competition. I can’t really say too much. These are fighters I got to meet sooner or later. He’s a great fighter with good power, solid skills. He’s a skillful fighter, but competition.
“Have you ever seen Tank get in there with someone he can’t hit?” said Shakur in making it clear that he wouldn’t let Tank Davis land on him if they fought. I’ve been inside the ring with [Mario] Barrios. There are different levels to boxing. I know how to hit and not get hit.
“I get hit. I sparred with Tank before, I sparred with Lomachenko, I sparred with Devin Haney, and I been in the ring with all these fighters. I sparred with Bud Crawford a lot.
“He punches hard. I have been wanted to fight Valdez since 2019. I was his mandatory before. I was mandatory for his belt, and he decided to vacate the belt and move up to 130 pounds.
“So now I got a belt, and he’s got a belt. It doesn’t make no sense for us to fight anybody else,” said Shakur Stevenson.
“Fans like to see drama, fans like to see action, and that’s what I try to provide. It’s a job. I put the work in every day. Even when I don’t want to put the work in, I show up and put the work in. I want to be the best, so I live boxing.
“Probably until I’m 35,” said Shakur when asked how long his career will be.”For me, I’ll stop if I don’t love it anymore. I’ll stop boxing if I don’t love it no more.
“I love boxing, so I come here and try and get better every day. If you’re not having fun with it, I don’t think you should be doing it. That’s me personally,” said Shakur.
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