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Shakur Stevenson Impresses on Crawford-Diaz Undercard

2016 U.S. Olympian Shakur Stevenson (2-0, 1 KO) made short work of Argentina’s Carlos Suarez (6-4-2, 1 KO), scoring a first-round TKO at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the main event featuring Terence Crawford-Felix Diaz.

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Photos by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

2016 U.S. Olympian Shakur Stevenson (2-0, 1 KO) made short work of Argentina’s Carlos Suarez (6-4-2, 1 KO), scoring a first-round TKO at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the main event featuring Terence Crawford-Felix Diaz.

The official time of the stoppage was 2:35 of the opening round.

The 19-year old Stevenson from nearby Newark, New Jersey came out of his corner firing hard left hands at Suarez who was clearly overmatched from the outset. Stevenson moved well in the round and was able to get to Suarez with ease by touching the Argentine with the jab and then the hard left hand.

It was a three punch combination punctuated by a hard right hook which sent Suarez down face first. As Suarez struggled stand up and regain his balance referee Arthur Mercante Jr. waived the bout off.

“I was looking for the knockout,” Stevenson said immediately after the bout. “When I look at my Box Rec and see 1-0 with zero knockouts I knew I had to get the knockout tonight.”

This was Stevenson’s first bout in the Tri-state area since winning the New Jersey Golden Gloves in 2015. Originally the plan by Stevenson’s promoter was to bring tonight’s card to the Prudential City in Newark, but Top Rank decided to hold off on having Stevenson fight in his hometown until he would be the headliner.

Top Rank employed a similar concept with their other recently signed Olympic hero Michael Conlan by having the Irish fighter headline a card at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick’s Day.

“It was an amazing feeling fighting at Madison Square Garden,” Stevenson said. “I can’t wait to come back here again. Although I don’t need to rush I want to fight someone who can give me a challenge so I can beat them up.”

Stevenson trained for this bout in the same camp with Terrence Crawford in Colorado Springs. Last month Stevenson won his professional debut last month winning a six-round unanimous technical decision over Edgar Brito at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, California.

Stevenson took home the silver medal at last summer’s Olympic Games in Rio when he lost a narrow decision to Cuban Robeisy Ramirez in the gold medal bout.

Although he was reduced to tears following the decision, Stevenson won fans all over the world with his poise and maturity and was rewarded with not only the medal but had a parade thrown in his honor in Newark. Now he hopes to bring a world title back home in the not too distant future.

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