Shakur Stevenson vs. Jeremiah Nakathila Betting
One of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world will look to add a new title to his list of accomplishments in Las Vegas on June 12. Shakur Stevenson has already claimed a title in the featherweight class, and he will be a humongous favorite when he takes on Jeremiah Nakathila with the WBO junior lightweight belt on the line. While no official line has been released as of June 3, the speculation is that Stevenson will be upwards of a -4000 favorite.
When: Saturday, June 12, 2021
Where: Virgin Hotels, Las Vegas, Nevada
Why: WBO interim junior lightweight title
Stevenson (15-0 with eight knockouts) is already an extremely decorated fighter at the age of 23. Meanwhile, Nakathila (21-1 with 17 knockouts) is relatively untested as 21 of his 22 fights have been in Africa.
Shakur Stevenson vs. Jeremiah Nakathila Boxing Odds
Jeremiah Nakathila +1240
Shakur Stevenson -5000
WBO Interim Junior Lightweight Title
Although Nakathila is a substantial underdog, he is brimming with confidence coming into this title fight. He told the largest newspaper in his native Namibia before leaving: “We are ready and it's time for Namibia and Africa to shine. We had a great training camp, so we can't have better preparation than this and I am ready to destroy Shakur Stevenson. I've got it all to do that, so come the 12th, we are going to shine, and Namibia will have a world champion again.”
Nakathila became a professional boxer in October 2013, and he won his first 10 fights to earn a shot at the WBO Africa super featherweight belt. He made the most of the opportunity and beat 26-6 Jasper Seroka by TKO to grab that strap and earn another title chance.
That victory meant that Nakathila would face Evgeny Chuprakov in Yekaterinburg for the WBO Inter-Continental super featherweight belt. Nakathila hung tough, but he lost a majority decision to the unbeaten Chuprakov. He has shaken off that defeat though, and his last 10 wins have all come by knockout.
Nakathila defended his WBO Africa super featherweight title successfully against Said Mohamed Hassan 10 months after the loss to Chuprakov. He retained that belt against four challengers before taking on 23-5-1 Zoltan Kovacs for the WBO Global super featherweight title. Nakathila was victorious in that bout, and he has defended that belt twice coming into his first major championship fight.
The 2016 Summer Olympics are where we first heard of Shakur Stevenson. He had won gold medals at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and the 2014 Youth World Championships in Sofia, so he was a heavy favorite to win the bantamweight division. Stevenson was one of the athletes highlighted by the American press, but he couldn’t win a gold medal. He made it to the final round before finishing runner-up to Robeisy Ramirez.
Still, Stevenson was such a heralded boxer that he immediately signed with Bob Arum and Top Rank boxing as soon as he turned pro. He showed his technical skills from the outset, as half of his first eight fights resulted in decision victories.
His first title fight came in January 2019. Stevenson scored a fourth round TKO over Jessie Cris Rosales to win the IBF Inter-Continental and WBC Continental Americas featherweight belts. He successfully defended the IBF belt and added the WBO-NABO featherweight title with a unanimous decision win over Christopher Diaz three months later.
Stevenson kept up the pace by defending the newly won title against Alberto Guevara three months after that fight, and he couldn’t be denied a title shot any longer.
Stevenson took on Joet Gonzalez for the WBO featherweight belt in October 2019. There was a lot of bad blood between these two fighters as Stevenson had been dating Gonzalez’s sister, and Gonzalez was not shy in expressing his disapproval of the relationship. The fight was a completely one-sided affair though as Stevenson won 11 of the 12 rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
Shakur Stevenson vs. Jeremiah Nakathila
This won’t be much of a contest. Stevenson is far more talented than his challenger, and he will toy with Nakathila in the ring.
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