Shakur Stevenson Chooses Padley: Safe Route To Davis Fight

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WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson has predictably gone with the safe pick with his replacement opponent, choosing British domestic-level fighter Josh Padley (15-0, 4 KOs) rather than the dangerous Cuban phenom Jadier Herrera for his title defense this Saturday, February 22nd, in Riyadh.

Turki Alalashikh revealed the news this morning that #10 WBC-ranked Padley, 29, will be the replacement opponent for Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) to fight this Saturday in a 12-round bout on the undercard of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will be shown live on DAZN.

Alalshikh didn’t say whether the Stevenson vs. Padley fight will be moved down lower in the card to the prelims, which would fit better with the lesser fights on Saturday’s card. The fight is a 100% mismatch, as Padley has no power, and his hand speed is slow. I don’t rate Padley as world class.

Shakur’s Strategy

I never for an instant thought Shakur’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, would select Herrera as his substitute opponent because he’d ruin the goal of hitting the motherload of gold riches with the Gervonta Davis fight. To get to potentially get that mega-money fight within his current two-fight contract with Matchroom, Shakur has to look outstanding in his first fight. That’s where Padley comes in. He’s the ideal opponent for Stevenson to shine, look unbeatable, and possibly get a rare knockout.

Unsurprisingly, the southpaw Jadier Herrera wasn’t chosen for Shakur because he has one-punch power and is lethal for a fighter with glass hands. Herrera’s power is on the level of Gervonta Davis, and he’d be all wrong for Shakur because he would land something big eventually.

Matchroom promoter Hearn would then be stuck eating the final fight of Shakur on his contract. It would be a waste of time for him to re-sign him to a new contract and put him on an expensive rebuild job like he did with Anthony Joshua. Shakur isn’t going to get better by rebuilding him

Padley is for showcase purposes, making Stevenson look better than he is. He fits in with some of Shakur’s recent lesser opponents, Artem Harutyunyan and Shuichiro Yoshino. Stevenson-Padley won’t be competitive because Padley is a weaker opponent than any of the fighters Shakur has fought in his last seven fights.

Surprisingly, he was given the green light as the replacement because it’s not a fight that is worthy of being placed on Saturday’s card. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Hearn recommended Josh Padley in his conversation with Turki.

Last Updated on 02/19/2025




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