Former world champion Tim Bradley has weighed in on a fight between Shakur Stevenson and Ryan Garcia after both starred in dominant world title wins.
Stevenson moved up to super-lightweight to dethrone Teofimo Lopez, becoming a four-weight world champion in the process. Lopez barely won a round on the scorecards, and the same fate befell Mario Barrios against Garcia this weekend in Las Vegas. With that victory, Garcia became the WBC welterweight world champion.
Post-fight, he called out Stevenson and, from ringside, Stevenson said he was all in.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Bradley addressed the proposed fight and can see no route to victory for Garcia, despite him being the naturally bigger man.
“Everybody keeps talking about this Ryan Garcia-Shakur Stevenson fight. Boy, I’m here to let y’all know that this s**t is gonna be easier [for Shakur] than the Teofimo Lopez fight, because it’s about skills inside that damn ring.
“Ryan can have all the speed in the world, Shakur got speed. He can have all the power in the world. Yeah. But when he can’t land, that s**t don’t mean nothing – and he ain’t gonna land on Shakur. It’s not gonna happen. It’s gonna be like taking candy from a damn baby.”
The match-up, despite willingness from both men, has its obstacles, not least the 144lbs catchweight Stevenson is demanding. Garcia may also want to keep his world title, and Stevenson’s relationship with the WBC crashed recently when he was stripped of his own belt for not paying a sanctioning fee. If it doesn’t happen, there’s no doubt that both will be in good fights next anyway, such is the strength of the competition in and around those weight classes.