Shawn Porter has suggested Floyd Mayweather isn’t the defensively best fighter he has seen in the sport.
Boxing legend Mayweather retired with a perfect 50-0 professional record, and is ranked as one of the greatest-boxers of all-time.
The American icon was known primarily for his sensational reflexes, movement and defensive abilities, which saw him dropped just once by Carlos Hernandez in 2001 during his stint.
He is viewed by many within the boxing fraternity to have possessed one of the best defensive skill sets of all-time.
But former two-time welterweight king Shawn Porter has suggested that Shakur Stevenson is even better defensively than the great.
“I’ve never seen a fighter with the kind of defense that Shakur Stevenson has,” Porter said on his podcast.
“For me, that includes Floyd Mayweather.”
Stevenson is the current WBC lightweight champion and himself has yet to be beaten as a professional.
He is blessed with mercurial technical ability and talent, but has faced criticism for his lack of KO power.
But he himself has rarely been touched with dangerous blows in his career, but has yet to be in with the most formidable punching opponents including Gervonta Davis.
Stevenson recently beat late replacement Josh Padley in yet another boxing clinic of accuracy and precision.
But he has yet to cement his name as a pound-for-pound leader, needing a breakout fight to shoot his profile into new stardom.
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Throughout his career, the Newark native has suffered with injuries to his hands, which have prevented him from reaching the peak of his powers.
And despite being compared favourably to the now veteran in his prime, Stevenson intends to reach out to Mayweather for guidance to save his career.
He said: “In the third round I had hurt both my hands, so I kind of chilled for a little bit.
“I had to relax and not use them as much in the rounds that was coming up next. Once I felt they cooled down a little bit I picked up the pace and knew it was time to go.
“I could have ended it a lot earlier than I ended it to be honest, but once my hands were hurting I had to chill.
“Yeah I had a conversation with him a long time ago, but I think we need to revisit the conversation.
“And also, not only revisit the conversation I need to get more detail, more in-depth about everything that he done with his hands that helped him prevail through all of the notches that he had to deal with coming up.
“I’m definitely gonna call him, probably when I get back and settle down a little bit more.
“But I’m gonna call him and ask him exactly what he did, what I need to do, how do I help myself, how do I save my career.”
