Shakur Stevenson’s routine victory left Vegas fans wanting more

The Saturday night crowd inside the theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas eventually grew restless, bored with Shakur Stevenson’s boxing brilliance.

The 23-year-old prodigy peppered Jeremiah Nakathila with hooks, jabs and effortlessly danced around anything the Nambian had to offer. But he didn’t knock Nakathila out the way the 1,800 or so in attendance had hoped.

He rolled to a unanimous decision instead.

Stevenson coasted to consensus 120-107 victory over the overmatched Nakathila, securing the vacant WBO interim junior lightweight title and setting up a legitimate title shot in the near future. The Newark, New Jersey, native acknowledged afterward that he could’ve put forth a better performance.

But he was pretty perfect nonetheless, punishing Nakathila plenty while avoiding any punches of consequence.

Stevenson affirmed that he wants to fight WBC junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez next. But a fight against WBO champion Jamel Herring is more likely and would set up a unification with Valdez afterward.

“(Herring) can’t beat me. I stand on that. None of the fighters at 130 can beat me and I stand on that,” Stevenson proclaimed after the victory. “I control these fights. I feel like I’m the best defensive fighter in boxing. Jamel can’t do nothing with me.”

Stevenson (16-0, eight knockouts) was surgical on Saturday and seemingly landed punches at will when he elected to throw. The southpaw’s jab was sharp and effective in helping him set up swooping left hooks. He dropped Nakathila with a check right hook at the end of the fourth round and toyed with him for the remainder of the fight.

Spectators called for Stevenson to stop Nakathila and encouraged the former featherweight world champion to throw combinations. But he was content picking apart the relatively anonymous 31-year old — whom he called “awkward” after the fight — while effortlessly evading anything and everything Nakathila (21-2, 17 KOs) had to offer.

Stevenson landed 114 punches, including 88 power punches. Nakathila connected with 28 total punches, per CompuBox.

“He knew how to do just enough to keep me from jumping on him,” Stevenson said. “I’m going to keep getting better and better. My next performance is going to be better than this one.”

Herring was in attendance Saturday night. As was pound-for great Terence Crawford, who holds the WBO welterweight title and sparred with Stevenson in training camp. Crawford sat behind Stevenson’s corner, offering encouragement throughout the course of the fight.

Stevenson is undoubtedly one of boxing’s brightest young stars, but needs to fight superior competition to better showcase his array of precocious skills.

“(With) fighters like Jamel or fighters like Oscar Valdez in front of me, you’ll see a lot more of my skills,” said Stevenson, who is promoted by Top Rank and hopes to fight again in September and December.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.