By: Sean Crose
WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson took on the extensively unknown Josh Padley Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Stevenson was alleged to have fought Floyd Schofield earlier than Schofield needed to drop out of the bout as a consequence of an sickness. The 15-0 Padley subsequently took the struggle on past quick discover. The query, after all, was whether or not or not Padley might presumably give the 22-0 Stevenson an actual struggle.
The southpaw Stevenson dominated the primary along with his superior ability set. Stevenson went on to land clear within the second. Though Padley actually didn’t come throughout as amateurish, the defending champion was in a position to fireplace some stinging mixtures within the third. Being defensive by nature, Shakur wasn’t one to cost ahead. Nonetheless, by the fourth it appeared like Stevenson was working in direction of a stoppage win.
The fifth was a sluggish, quiet affair. Stevenson labored the physique nicely on the finish, nevertheless. He then fired at Padley’s head earlier than the bell rang. Padley, to his credit score, fired again with unhealthy intentions. By the sixth, Stevenson seemed as if he was working to finish the struggle. He wasn’t hurting his man, although, which can have disillusioned some followers. Nonetheless, Stevenson was displaying extraordinary ability.
Stevenson’s hand gave the impression to be damage within the seventh. Though he seemed sharp within the eighth, it appeared as if the situation of Stevenson’s hand would stop an early ending to the struggle. That didn’t show to be the case.
Within the ninth, when it seemed just like the struggle would go the space, Padley was dropped with a physique shot. He acquired up, however a second physique shot put him down once more. Padley acquired up for the second time, however the struggle was all however over. Certainly, Stevenson put his man down a 3rd time earlier than the spherical had ended. Padley’s nook, having seen sufficient, threw within the towel, giving Stevenson his early victory.
