“Huge doubleheader being negotiated, Unified 140 fight, Shakur Stevenson vs Gary Antuanne Russell, & Richardson Hitchins vs Keyshawn Davis at 147 pounds. Absolutely 2 great pick’em fights that every Boxing fan will be interested in. Zuffa event, exact date TBD,” said Glaser.
Shakur-Russell would combine elite speed, defense, and familiarity between two fighters who have shared rounds in the gym. Russell brings far more aggression than many of Shakur’s recent opponents and would force him to work throughout the fight rather than cruise behind single shots.
In Antuanne’s last fight against Andy Hiraoka, he held and moved a lot to avoid pressure from the more powerful Hiraoka. Once Andy started investing downstairs and refused to fold under the early pressure, Gary Antuanne looked completely lost, resorting to clinching and retreating instead of doing what made him dangerous in the first place.
Matching Shakur against Russell feels like business as usual: finding an opponent with name recognition who presents the illusion of danger while possessing glaring stylistic defects Shakur can pick apart from the outside all night. Shakur loves fighting guys who get frustrated when they cannot land their first explosive burst, and Russell showed against Hiraoka that his engine sputters when forced to fight at a controlled, tactical tempo.
Ernesto Mercado, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. “Tito” brings legitimate one-punch power, sharp combination punching, and an aggressive hunger that would force Shakur into the trenches. Mercado would not allow Shakur to coast behind single jabs or reset after every exchange. He possesses the hand speed to contest the mid-range and the heavy hands to make Shakur pay for every defensive slip.
Taking on Mercado would carry genuine danger for Shakur, which is precisely why that fight rarely gets mentioned in these boardroom negotiations. Russell is the safe route wrapped in a belt, while Mercado is the nightmare matchup that would test whether Shakur’s skill set actually translates to 140 against a genuine puncher.
Hitchins against Keyshawn is definitely the real attraction on that card. Putting them beneath Shakur against Russell makes zero sense from an entertainment standpoint.
Those two genuinely despise each other. When fighters carry that kind of bad blood into the ring, pride takes over, so nobody is going to survive twelve rounds by spoiling. Hitchins brings an elite jab along with sharp distance control, while Keyshawn loves walking opponents down to unload heavy combinations.
Keyshawn moving up to 147 makes the dynamic even better. Hitchins naturally looks bigger, yet Keyshawn brings explosive offense that can force Richardson out of his comfort zone. If Zuffa puts that fight together, it deserves top billing because both men are entering their physical primes with everything on the line. Shakur against Russell feels like a routine tactical sparring session by comparison.
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