Shakur Stevenson dominated Robson Conceicao in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey on Friday night, despite being stripped of his WBC and WBO super-featherweight belts before the fight for missing the weight.
The American star was due to defend his belts against Conceicao, but weighed in at 131.6lbs while the Brazilian challenger was inside the 130lbs limit at 129.6lbs.
That didn’t seem to affect Stevenson in the ring, as he dominated Conceicao from start to finish for a unanimous decision win (118-108, 117-109, 117-109).
Stevenson, who dropped 2016 Olympic gold medalist Conceicao late in the fourth round, has already said he will now move up in weight to 135lbs to the lightweight division.
“I had a long week,” said Shakur after the fight. “I killed myself to make weight. All I want to do is come in here and perform. I did everything I could to do that.
“I’m just a dominating individual. With me versus him, the ref, I did everything I could to try and beat him up as much as I could.
“He held me the whole night, but I did everything I could. I think he was doing a lot of holding whenever I was getting on the inside. As soon as I got on the inside, he grabbed me.”
Stevenson is now eyeing up a fight with Devin Haney or Vasiliy Lomachenko, saying: “Me and Devin, we could lock-in. After he fights [George] Kambosos, let’s get it on. I’ll fight Lomachenko, too!”
