Boxers have often been heavily criticized for their guarded matchmaking in order to protect their undefeated records. Shakur Stevenson was a culprit of the same this past weekend as he took on Artem Harutyunyan to retain his WBC lightweight title. This prompted banned boxer Ryan Garcia to compare it a ‘NyQuil sleep time commercial’
Steveson is currently in a stacked weight class where a number of super fights can be made. However, given the lack of popularity of his opponent, the fight was able to draw only 8,412 fans into the arena.
For context the arena has a capacity of 18,000 and the most recent UFC event held at the same arena in June 2024 had an attendance of 17,834.
In addition to this, Stevenson was heavily booed by fans in attendance and videos emerged on social media of fans leaving the arena en masse even before the fight had ended.
Outspoken boxer Ryan Garcia also had a lot to say about the ‘boring’ encounter.
An account on Twitter pirated the entire fight and posted it online, which invoked a reaction from ‘King’.
The 25-year-old simply compared it to falling asleep.
“Best NyQuil sleep time commercial ever made, well done NyQuil.”
Best NyQuil sleep time commercial ever made, well done NyQuil https://t.co/nCIhvT72qH
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) July 8, 2024
However, reacting to the criticisms from fans and peers, Stevenson said that it was hard for him to put on a show against a fighter who did not want to fight.
He also promised to do better the next time he steps into the boxing ring, a luxury Garcia will not be enjoying anytime soon.
Garcia shoots himself in the foot with recent comments made online
Things are going from bad to worse for Ryan Garcia.
Last month he was banned from the sport of boxing for a year after he was found guilty of taking banned substances.
This ruling in the eyes of many was unjust as they believed Garcia was being framed.
However, a few weeks on from that incident, ‘King’ came down with a severe case of ‘foot in mouth’ disease.
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The 26-year-old joined a live show on X’s spaces platform, where he uttered a number of disparaging and uncivilized comments about black people, the LGBTQ community and Muslims.
This led to him being “expelled” by the WBC. However, the exact details of the ruling by the WBC and the duration for the same are not known at this point in time. That said, it is widely believed that this was a lifetime ban.
