Shakur Stevenson retained his title in lackluster fashion against Artem Harutyunyan and was booed in his first successful defense of the WBC lightweight belt.

Stevenson was booed three times at home in New Jersey when he unanimously defeated Armenian-born German Harutyunyan to retain the WBC lightweight title at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

The judges voted 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112 in the first successful 135-pound defense for the 27-year-old three-time world champion (feather, super featherweight and lightweight) and Olympic silver medalist.

The fight was not over and several fans who attended the facility located in Stevenson's hometown were leaving in a fight that was reminiscent of Cuba's Guillermo Rigondeaux, a technically excellent fighter, but who never clicked with the public because of his ultra-defensive style.

Shakur started calmly, analyzing his opponent and waiting for him. Artem Harutyunyan, meanwhile, came out more aggressive, pressing and with power punches.

The Armenian made feints, closed spaces to the champion and tried to hurt him. One of Shakur's few punches in the first round was a straight left before the bell rang.

Criticized many times for his style, that of thinking a lot and throwing few punches, Shakur started the second round like that, taking care of the power punches that Harutyunyan threw, who kept moving forward, with a lot of waist movement and looking to hurt, although he didn't get it as he wanted.