Shakur Stevenson did his normal thing for the most part this evening, winning a clear decision over Robson Conceicao in a fight that lost luster on the scales Friday when Stevenson missed weight.
Stevenson won on official scores of 117-109, 117-109, and 118-108. Bad Left Hook had it 116-110 and 119-107 for Stevenson, who was docked a point in the ninth round for a hiptoss, and could have been more harshly penalized later for the same thing, but wasn’t.
The end result sends two titles, the WBC and WBO belts at 130 lbs, into official vacancy, as they were only on the line for Conceicao in Newark.
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KO) was at times dominant in this fight, when he got on the front foot and did some damage, even if he never had Conceicao (17-2, 8 KO) in any tremendous danger.
The ringside physician did check on Conceicao between the seventh and eighth rounds, when Stevenson was peaking in the fight, but that seemed to alert Conceicao to the fact that he had to do more, and he did try down the stretch, which saw Stevenson back off a bit, though he would have a great 11th round.
There was plenty of roughhouse sort of stuff in this fight, with Stevenson appearing to stray low — while also doing legitimately good body work — and Conceicao holding frequently, which led to Stevenson’s frustration on the aforementioned hiptosses.
“I had a long week,” Stevenson said. “I killed myself to make weight. All I wanted to do was come in here and perform, and I did everything I could to do that.”
“I’m just a dominant individual. Even with me versus (Conceicao) and the ref, I did everything I could to try to beat him up as much as I can,” he added. “He held me the whole night, but I did everything I could. As soon as I got on the inside, he would grab me. But he’s real awkward and real tough, and he knows how to survive.”
There was no chance @ShakurStevenson was going to disappoint at home. @BoostMobile x #StevensonConeicao pic.twitter.com/PhKzt6C7iC
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) September 24, 2022
