By Elliot Worsell
AMONG the many problems with social media, one of the big ones is the ease with which people – anyone – can tap something out on their phone, hit the send button, and then watch as this nonsense not only appears online but is somehow considered gospel; newsworthy.
In boxing, this is a practice we have seen finessed and mastered by someone like Tyson Fury over the years. He has become almost synonymous, in fact, with the idea of announcing his retirement just to see how many people fall for it or, worse, report on it as though it is a relevant (and true) news story. With Fury, too, there has long been a sense that he understands the stupidity of this practice – both his own and of others – and at some point in his career simply decided to have a bit of fun with it. Once this then became apparent, it became much harder to believe the things he said (or wrote) and eventually, having perhaps realised this himself, Fury gave up. Indeed, it has been a while since he announced a retirement.
Filling that void for now is another fighter, Shakur Stevenson. He announced last night (January 29) that he had had enough of this boxing lark and would look to do something else for the rest of his life.
“I’m officially retiring from the sport of boxing,” Stevenson, 21-0 (10), told his followers on Twitter/X. “I’ll be in the gym forever perfecting my craft and helping the next generation become great and chase they (sic) dreams but I ain’t fw (f**king with) this weak boxing game.”
Stevenson walks to the ring (Brandon Magnus/Getty Images)
Still only 26 years of age, and with plenty of money still to make from the only thing he knows how to do, the “retirement” of Shakur Stevenson is of course all a nonsense. In fact, having been here before with others, you can quite easily read between the lines and deduce that the lightweight’s “announcement” has as much to do with frustration as a natural and constant craving for attention. Together, this is a combination of things that often has boxers acting out on social media, this platform as dangerous as it is beneficial, and Stevenson is certainly not the first young fighter to have said something on there he may later regret. Nor for that matter is Stevenson the first fighter to have said something greeted by eyerolls and scepticism by 99.9% of the people who happen to read it.
“Congratulations on what you accomplished @ShakurStevenson,” wrote promoter Oscar De La Hoya in response. “Now time to vacate the title. Really enjoyed your career.”
No stranger to bizarre social media outbursts himself, De La Hoya, by responding to Stevenson in this manner, greeted the announcement with the contempt he felt it deserved. He knows as well as anyone the importance of boxing in a young man’s life and he knows as well that a fit and healthy 26-year-old does not simply walk away from the sport when fed up with its politics. More than that, De La Hoya, like everyone else now, has probably cottoned on to the ways in which social media is being used by today’s fighters – one only has to look at his recent and very online spat with Ryan Garcia to see this – and believes the best tool to use to combat insincerity is insincerity.