Coach Robert Garcia says world champions Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez each turned down fights in opposition to unbeaten phenom Raymond Muratalla in favor of lesser opponents, Artem Harutyunyan and Steve Claggett.
Garcia accuses Shakur and Teofimo of being reluctant to struggle Muratalla, preferring to take arguably simpler fights, Claggett, and the not too long ago crushed Harutyunyan.
Buying and selling Dangerous Fights for Simple Wins
What does the avoidance of Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) by WBC light-weight champion Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) and WBO mild welterweight champion Teofimo (20-1, 13 KOs) say about them as fighters? Are they risk-aversive fighters who speak a giant recreation however fail to again up their boasting?
In Teofimo’s case, he’s coming a humiliating controversial choice win over Jamaine Ortiz, and he in all probability wants a confidence increase after being given a victory that the boxing world overwhelmingly had him shedding final February. That was the second struggle within the final three matches for Teofimo during which he was given a controversial victory.
In December 2022, Teofimo was given a ten-round cut up choice in opposition to Sandor Martin in New York. Sandor dropped Teofimo twice, and outboxed him your entire struggle, making a monkey out of him in entrance of his personal followers at MSG. After the struggle, Teofimo seemed shell-shocked, saying, “Do I nonetheless received it?”
Shakur’s Fragile Ego
What’s shocking to some is that Shakur Stevenson, a man who boasts loads, turned down a struggle in opposition to the damaging Muratalla in favor of a match in opposition to Artem Harutyunyan on July sixth on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey.
Harutyunyan, 33, misplaced his final struggle in opposition to Frank Martin, which ought to mechanically disqualify him for a title shot in opposition to Shakur, however apparently not. Like Teofimo, Shakur is coming off a controversial terribly poor win over Edwin De Los Santos in his final struggle in November.
So, it’s attainable that High Rank selected to provide Shakur a gimme opponent to assist his self-confidence in order that perhaps he’ll look good, they usually can re-sign him. If High Rank matched Shakur in opposition to Muratalla proper now, the possibilities are that he’d disintegrate, look unhealthy, and his worth to them would drop.
Garcia Exposes the Fact
“100%. They informed us just a few weeks in the past if it was out there if we may transfer up and like going as much as 140 to problem Teofimo. Since all of the 135s are additionally doing the identical, not selecting Raymond [Muratalla] as their subsequent opponent, I mentioned I’m open to do it, however it appears to be like like Teofimo selected to struggle any person else [Steve Claggett] too,” mentioned coach Robert Garcia to Thaboxingvoice about WBO mild welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez turning down a struggle in opposition to the proficient phenom Raymond Muratalla in favor of fringe contender Steve Claggett on June twenty ninth.
“The opposite belts are vacant, so we will’t speak about these guys [at lightweight] as a result of we don’t know who’s going to win, clearly. Loma will extra possible win [against George Kambosos Jr. for the vacant IBF 135-lb title], and [Emanuel] Navarrete will possible win [against Denis Berinchyk for the vacant WBO belt on May 18th], however we have now to attend to see who wins.
“Shakur, we did the identical factor with Shakur, and he selected to struggle some man [Artem Harutyunyan] that misplaced his final struggle [against Frank Martin],” mentioned Robert Garcia.
Muratalla (20-0, 16 KOs) placed on a masterclass not too long ago, defeating Xolisani Ndongeni by a one-sided ten-round unanimous choice on March twenty ninth.