Shakur Stevenson

Shakur Stevenson is what boxing purists mean when they say 'they don't make them like this anymore.' The Newark southpaw is 25-0 with world titles in three weight classes — featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight — and he collected them all before turning 28, barely getting touched in the process.

The defense is generational: CompuBox routinely records opponents landing single-digit punches per round against him. Stevenson fights out of a Mayweather-school shell — shoulder roll, elite distance control, counters that arrive the instant an opponent commits — and the frustration he induces is visible in real time. Only 11 knockouts in 25 wins tells the trade-off; the shutouts tell the result.

An Olympic silver medalist at Rio 2016, he was groomed as the sport's next technician and has never once looked out of his depth. The criticism — that safety-first brilliance doesn't sell — follows him the way it followed Mayweather, and Stevenson has been increasingly willing to plant his feet and answer it.

Now the WBO champion up at super lightweight at 29, the fight the sport demands is Gervonta Davis. Stevenson has been asking for it, loudly, for years.