The news is out: Shakur Stevenson is going to be fighting Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Shakur responded to it himself — “Watch this, and this is a fact” — and the fans split straight down the middle. Some call Pitbull a banger matchup. Others say this is exactly the kind of fight Shakur likes: one he knows he can beat. On the latest AKHi TV, AKHi is firmly in the second camp, and his argument is simple arithmetic.
Shakur, AKHi reminds everybody, said no to $7 million to fight Rayo Valenzuela in his own hometown — October, November or December, his pick. And who beat Pitbull Cruz? Rayo did. So the sequence, in AKHi’s telling, is this: turn down the man, then go fight the man he beat. “You better not do it for less money,” AKHi says. “It better not be less than 7 million.”
The backdrop is the Zuffa exit. AKHi stresses the release was a mutual agreement, then asks the question that frames his whole video: when Jon Jones and other UFC fighters demand their releases, they don’t get them — so why did Shakur get his so easily? His answer: Zuffa got tired, fast, because their main objective, per reports AKHi cites, was always Devin Haney at 147. Shakur was willing to talk Manny Pacquiao at 147 and Conor Benn at 147 or 150, AKHi says — but for Haney it had to be a catchweight, and when Haney agreed to the catchweight, a rehydration clause appeared. Meanwhile Shakur’s public line was 135 to 140 now, 147 in two or three years.
Then came the money demands that ended the experiment. Gary wasn’t an option, Devin wasn’t an option, Foster wasn’t an option — and Rayo, willing to fight in Shakur’s hometown for $7 million, was turned away because Shakur wanted $15 million. AKHi says Shakur also turned down a lesser opponent for $5 million on a December date. His verdict is blunt: nobody is paying Shakur $15 million, nobody is paying him $7 million right now either, and a fighter talking those numbers while picking the loser of the fight he rejected is, in AKHi’s words, hustling backward.
There is a style warning buried in this, and it matters. Pitbull already lost to Rayo — AKHi says Rayo beat him better than Tank did, and that Pitbull deactivated his rematch clause rather than run it back. If Shakur beats Pitbull by moving excessively all night, the way his De Los Santos performance is remembered, AKHi argues Pitbull still wins the night: make Shakur look like he’s running, after all this, and the fans will not forgive it. After walking away from Haney money, Rayo money and a Zuffa deal, Shakur doesn’t just need a win over Pitbull. He needs a statement. Anything less confirms the story his critics have been telling all along.
Video credit: AKHi TV.
Read next: Free Agent: Shakur Says Zuffa Granted His Release — AKHi Says the Haney Money Is Why He Walked
