Curtis Stevens returns January 24

Heard the issues were late in the camp, that he actually had a great camp. He was certainly in prime physical condition. You could tell Rozier had done a great job, especially getting his body toughened up. He took a lot more of Golovkins body shots without folding than any other MW could.

Honestly Stevens gave a good account of himself, and I think if he had 3-4 more fights for skill-up he would have done even better. Finishing 3/4 of his comeback fights so early wasnt helpful from a seasoning perspective.

Still, I dont think he beats GGG. However, I do think with another seasoning fight or two to build on what he must have learned vs GGG, he does beat anyone else at MW.

I predict Stevens and GGG become the equivalent of Froch and Ward for MW, where Stevens comes to hold the #2 spot for quite a while. Lets see him nab Quillin or Barker belt, then im sure GGG would happily fight a unification bout with him.

Anyhow, you need not make excuses for your guy and you shouldnt. He is a good fighter, and I expect big things from him in the future.

 

I'm interested in Stevens, want to see how he goes.

IMO kid's a danger at 160 and there's even suggestions he could work at 154. Golovkin was never the right fight for him but he was offered a payday he couldn't turn down.

 

You were doing well right up until you mentioned Golovkin.

 

I'm not quite ready to go that far (annointing Stevens as 160 #2), but when I think about it I do see Stevens culling the MW division in pretty short order. Ends up sounding like a GGG fanvoice - like bigging Stevens up as a win, but I genuinely think Curtis would go through most of the top 20 MWs with little pause.

 

:good

 

I wouldnt say he is #2 right now. I just am prognosticating that he can get there, with his handspeed and physical conditioning. He just needs to season up and refine his boxing skill a bit, theres things he can do , and I think will do a lot better with a bit more practice and seasoning.

 

curtis struggles against guys with good movement, he is good at getting the best in exchanges that are brought to him. He looks better against pressure fighters than he does runners. Rosad would kick his ass in a very entertaining fight.

 

Hes decent. No doubt. But hes done rock all to suggest hed beat a murray or quillin. Him vs andy lee wld be a good yardstick for both fighters imo

 

dunno if he could beat them, but you are spot on in singling out these two middleweights as being overrated...:good

 

A good fan friendly fighter to be sure-but way out of his league when it comes to the top 10 dudes.Enjoy seeing him on undercard though.

 

Perhaps he could beat Quillin, but then perhaps anyone in the top 10 could too. Quuillin is overrated ,bigtime.
Dont agree that Murray is a clever fighter at all. Far from it. He is purely a "physical" fighter who relies on his bulk and strength to grind down smaller opponents, using his huge arms as shields to do so.
He has been lucky. Stepped up precisely twice.
His "gameplan" as you call it, didnt work against Sturm, who is just as big, has an even tighter guard behind his own huge arms and a far superior jab than Murray. Haunted lucky to get a gift draw from the judges who were falling over themselves to be "extra neutral" in Sturm fight following on from the Macklin rip-off.

The Martinez fight flattered him greatly, but against a badly injured, old, smaller opponent he failed to pull it off.

Murray has only one plan, one gear, one speed, one approach...either it works or it doesnt. Nothing sophisticated or clever about it, just a big grinder.

 

pretty quick comeback for the beating he took, hopefully there's not too much wear and tear, he fits in far better as a MW than he did at SMW or LHW,

 

:dead

Wake me up when Stevens and his old buddy Codrington decide to finally get it on and determine the king of the chin-checkers. :yep

 

all joking aside....i hope they setup stevens vs lemieux...i think it would be a very interesting fight and much more competetive than stevens ggg