Shakur Stevenson promises this brutal result for Artem Harutyunyan

Shakur Stevenson isn't coming off his best performance.

The WBC lightweight world champion failed to notch double-digit punch output in any of the 12 rounds, but did hold Edwin De Los Santos to a CompuBox-low 40 punches landed in his unanimous decision win this past November.

That being said, he's looking to put on a much better show, defending the title against a rugged Artem Harutyunyan this weekend. And that means he's OK ditching his boxing mastery for a full-fledged fight if need be.

"This dude is a good fighter. I think a lot of people — the public — don't know him so they don't understand how good he is but I think right now the mode that I'm in and what I got going on in my brain ... I want to come and put punishment on him," Stevenson said during a recent Top Rank Boxing Real Time episode .

"It may start off as a boxing match," he added, "and then I might just start beating the s—t out of him."

The 27-year-old Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) fully expects a dazzling showing against Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) to lead to bigger fights down the road.

Live on DAZN: Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal on July 6. Click here for details.