By: Sean Crose
Shakur Stevenson has apparently decided to single handedly lower the retirement age by calling it a career at the ripe old age of 26. “I’m officially retiring from the sport of boxing,” he posted to social media early Tuesday morning. “I’ll be in the gym forever perfecting my craft and helping the next generation become great and chase they dreams but I ain’t fw this weak boxing game.” Whether or not this announcement proves to be true in the long run is anyone’s guess, though this sort of thing is not uncommon in boxing, where outside the ring politics have a tendency of spoiling even the sweetest smell of success.
With that being said, three division titlist Stevenson is nothing if not someone in possession of an extraordinary talent. After earning a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics, Stevenson went on to compile a record of 21 wins against zero defeats in a career that – if his retirement announcement is legitimate – lasted less than seven years. Suffice to say, many, if not most, feel the Newark, New Jersey native will indeed return to the ring. If Stevenson doesn’t, of course, it would be a loss of one of the sport’s premier talents.
With that being said, Stevenson disappointed many fans and analysts in his last fight. For Stevenson’s performance last November against Edwin De La Santos was so void of action that even Stevenson’s normally lauded skill set failed to impress. Stevenson himself appeared less than thrilled with his performance and – in truth – every fighter, even mutli-divisional titlists, have off nights. In other words, the De Stanos fight was far, far from career ending material. Still, although he referred to “this weak boxing game” in his social media post, Stevenson didn’t make it exactly clear why he was choosing to leave his profession behind.
