Video Highlights: Shakur Stevenson puts on boxing clinic against Oscar Valdez

Shakur Stevenson dominated Oscar Valdez in Las Vegas to become the unified WBC and WBO junior lightweight champion. | Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images

It was a nearly flawless display of boxing from …


Shakur Stevenson dominated Oscar Valdez in Las Vegas to become the unified WBC and WBO junior lightweight champion.
Shakur Stevenson dominated Oscar Valdez in Las Vegas to become the unified WBC and WBO junior lightweight champion. | Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images

It was a nearly flawless display of boxing from Shakur Stevenson.

Shakur Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) has arrived as one of boxing’s best.

The 2016 Olympic silver medalist entered Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing main event against Oscar Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs) as the WBO junior lightweight champion. With his thorough outclassing of Valdez, he now owns the WBC title as well.

Stevenson scored a knockdown and was otherwise in full control against the Mexican in what was a pro-Valdez crowd inside Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. His speed, precision, shot selection, ring generalship, and defense all blended together to make a world-class opponent look ordinary. Valdez never quit and he kept searching for punishing shots to knock Stevenson down and out, but it never materialized. Stevenson ate some punches but showed a good chin, and his combinations were leaving Valdez flustered and panicked.

By the end of the fight, Stevenson looked like he’d just done light sparring, whereas Valdez’s face was marked up everywhere. This is not to leave out Stevenson’s exemplary body work, which hurt Valdez on more than one occasion.

Stevenson won by unanimous decision (117-110, 118-109, 118-109) and there’s no doubt now that he is one of the top boxers in the world. Big fights await him potentially up at lightweight, including the Devin Haney-George Kambosos Jr winner and Vasiliy Lomachenko, but maybe he’ll stay out at 130 lbs and try and become the undisputed champion. The 24-year-old just continues to impress against increasingly tougher competition.

Highlights below:

By the way, Stevenson had one more W in the form of proposing to his girlfriend, who said yes.