Shields: Stevenson the real king of 135, has enough to beat all other top fighters

Claressa Shields believes Shakur Stevenson is the cream of the crop at lightweight, and will eventually best his contemporaries.

Claressa Shields just recently caught up with Fight Hype to give her take on the upcoming PPV showdown between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, but also touches on where Shakur Stevenson fits into the lightweight picture. As Shields sees it, Stevenson is the best of the bunch and thinks he’ll prove as much once as he works his way towards those marquee fights. Check out some of what she had to say below.

Shields on whether Stevenson should target the winner of Haney vs Loma or Davis vs Garcia next

“I think either or, and honestly I’ve been telling everybody that out of the four kings, is believe that Shakur is the king at 130, 135. Shakur is hard to beat. The dude has been to the Olympics, we know he got silver but might as well say gold. The dude is a perfect fighter, a perfect hard worker, got heart, got grit, skill. I mean, like I say, he’s the hardest person to hit and he’s a dog in there.

“I think the toughest fight he can have in there is between him and Gervonta Davis.”

On if she believes Davis would be a tougher opponent than Haney for Stevenson

“Yeah. And I say that because of his power. I think that Shakur, from what I saw, is stronger than Devin and it looks like he’s come over to the pros a little bit better, because Devin is an excellent fighter too. I just think that with Tank having that power that he can cause anybody problems. But I believe that Shakur has enough to beat any of them.”

On who she likes to win between Davis and Garcia

“If you put everything to the side, Ryan being a good kid and I do love him a lot and I respect the kid, I don’t think he’s on the level of Gervonta Davis. But I think his confidence will keep him in the fight a lot longer than what people think he should be in there.”