Bob Arum blames Shakur Stevenson’s retirement announcement on being ‘tremendous talent’

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CEO of Top Rank, Bob Arum, said his client Shakur Stevenson’s decision to leave boxing was due to the 26-year old’s tremendous talent in the sport.

WBC lightweight king Shakur Stevenson recently announced to the surprise of fans that he was hanging the gloves. This was in the wake of unsavoury reactions that followed his underwhelming victory over Edwin De Los Santos.

It has been hard for Stevenson to get fight opponents in the lightweight division — possibly due to how good he is at the sport. None of the big boxers of the division would like to be beaten, while to fight small ones will receive boos from fans.

Though Stevenson came out on top against De Los Santos, fans still see the fight as uneventful and unenjoyable. The backlash that followed the win might have made Arum’s client to decide to leave boxing, but Arum was optimistic.

‘Shakur is the WBC champion, there are plenty of good fighters for him to fight, but obviously down the road we will be do a fight with Shakur and [Vasyl] Lomachenko, if Lomachenko is successful against [George] Kambosos, or with [Emmanuel] Navarette if he becomes the WBO 135lb champion,’ Arum said to FightHype.

‘Everything takes patience. Shakur is a tremendous talent, but as with a lot of tremendous talents, they become impatient and they want everything today or tomorrow. That’s not the way that it happens in boxing.

‘So, I understand his frustration but I also think that now that he’s had time to reflect, he realises that he’s got to be patient and that the big fights will come to him.’

Some agree with Bob Arum.