- Tim Bradley has publicly called Shakur Stevenson the pound-for-pound best fighter in boxing, placing him above Usyk and Inoue
- Stevenson became the third-youngest four-division world champion in history last summer and demolished Teofimo Lopez at MSG in January
- Luke's verdict: Shakur is special — but P4P No.1 requires undisputed titles and dangerous opponents, and he has neither yet
The Take
Right then. Tim Bradley — proper former world champion, a man whose opinion I usually respect on technical boxing — has gone on his YouTube channel and said the quiet part loud. Shakur Stevenson, he reckons, is now the best fighter on the planet. Above Oleksandr Usyk, the man who became undisputed heavyweight and undisputed cruiserweight. Above Naoya Inoue, the man who is about to box Junto Nakatani at the Tokyo Dome for undisputed at 122 having already done undisputed at 118.
Let's not beat around the bush: that's a take that does not survive contact with reality. Bradley's reasoning is that Shakur is so technically brilliant, so impossible to hit clean, so surgically boring-good, that he's operating at a higher skill plateau than anyone else. And the bit about skill? He's not wrong. Shakur can fight. The problem is that pound-for-pound isn't a skill contest — it's a résumé contest, and Shakur's résumé, while very good, does not yet sit in the same room as the two men he's being ranked above.
What Shakur Has Actually Done
Let's give Shakur his due first, because I'm not here to run the bloke down. He won WBO featherweight, WBO and WBC super feather, WBC lightweight, and then last summer he became the third-youngest four-division champion in the 150-year history of the sport by taking the 140-pound title. He then walked into Madison Square Garden on January 31 and absolutely schooled Teofimo Lopez — a man who was WBO and IBF light-welterweight champion, a man who beat Josh Taylor and Loma — over twelve rounds with the sort of one-sided masterclass that makes you realise how far ahead he is of the pack below 140.
Four divisions is class. Beating a live Teofimo Lopez inside a month was class. And Shakur has a case to be top-five pound-for-pound right now, which is where most serious lists have him. But top of the list? Above Usyk? Come off it.
Where The Argument Falls Apart
Usyk is undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He's also undisputed at cruiserweight. He has beaten Anthony Joshua twice, Daniel Dubois twice, Tyson Fury twice, and is on the run of a generation. The only reason he's not universally agreed as P4P No.1 is that he's 38 and Inoue is younger. You can argue Usyk vs Inoue at the top all day — that's a proper conversation.
Inoue is 32-0 with 27 KOs, former undisputed at 118, already unified at 122, and walks into the Tokyo Dome on May 2 as the headline act in the biggest domestic boxing event in Japanese history. He punches like someone twice his size. He's been dropped, he's got back up, he's adjusted mid-fight, he's stopped everyone he's faced bar a handful. When you talk P4P No.1, Inoue is in the conversation because of the results. Not because of the highlight reel.
Shakur has not been undisputed in any division. He vacated 130 rather than take the mandatory. He took nine months off waiting for the "right" fight at 135. He has ducked Gervonta Davis, he has ducked Frank Martin twice, and — let's be honest — he took the Teofimo fight when Teofimo had just come off a lacklustre decision win over Jamaine Ortiz and looked nothing like the kid who beat Loma. Shakur has never had a dangerous fight. Not one. Not in the way Usyk vs Dubois in round nine at Wroclaw was dangerous, or Inoue vs Nery in round one last year was dangerous.
The Skill Argument — Why It Isn't Enough
Make no mistake, Shakur is levels above most lightweights on pure technique. He was never meant to be a puncher. He was meant to be a body of work — the guy who's never in a fight because he makes every fight look simple. And that's exactly what he is. The defence is absurd. The footwork is better than anyone bar Crawford at his peak. The jab is a proper jab.
But P4P is about what you've done to other elite people, not what you've done to opponents ranked below your level. If pure skill picked the P4P list we'd have had Willie Pep at No.1 every year he boxed, and he wasn't. Pep beat killers. So did Robinson. So did Mayweather — Mayweather's case was that he ran through a generation of live champions. Shakur has not done that, and he does not appear to be in any hurry to.
If Shakur fights Gervonta Davis — Bradley's proposed next step — and wins, we're having a different conversation. If he fights William Zepeda and wins, we're having a different conversation. If he takes the mandatory at 140 instead of vacating it to move up for money, different conversation. Right now? He's a top-five P4P guy, not the top. Bradley's take reads like he's been watching too much Shakur highlight reel and not enough Usyk footwork in the championship rounds.
My P4P Top Five
For what it's worth — and I know you didn't ask, but if you know, you know — my list this morning is: 1. Usyk. 2. Inoue. 3. Stevenson. 4. Crawford (retired but still counts until year's end). 5. Canelo. Shakur could absolutely be top two by the end of 2026. But he needs a scary fight to get there. A fight where the public isn't 100% sure which way it goes. That's the price of the crown. Bradley just skipped the queue for him.
Brilliant fighter. Brilliant technician. Not yet the best on earth. Let's see him announce himself properly first.