Bob Arum making progress with Shakur Stevenson vs. Josh Warrington negotiations for Apri or May

By Boxing News - 12/03/2019 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Bob Arum says he’s making good progress on the negotiations for a unification fight between IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington and WBO champ Shakur Stevenson. Arum, who promotes the unbeaten Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) is negotiating with Warrington’s promoter Frank Warren.

The fight will be shown in the United States on ESPN.

Arum plans on staging Warrington vs. Stevenson in April/May

If Top Rank Boxing promoter Arum is able to negotiate the Warrington vs. Stevenson fight successfully, it’ll take take place in England in April or May of next year.

“We’re making good progress with Frank about doing it,” Arum said to ESPN.com about the Warrington vs. Stevenson fight.

Warrington, 29, must have a lot of self confidence that he can in this fight for him to take it. To have a chance at beating the 22-year-old Stevenson, Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs) will need to figure out how to close the distance, and use his high work rate to beat him.

Stevenson doesn’t throw a lot of punches, but he’s respectable power. What makes Stevenson difficult to beat is his movement. He’s someone that isn’t going to stand and fight Warrington or any elite level featherweight.

2016 Olympic silver medalist Stevenson is looking really solid right now, and it is hard to beat. In his last fight, he defeated previously unbeaten Joet Gonzalez (23-1, 14 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on October 26 to win the vacant WBO 126-lb title.

Josh with big wins over Frampton and Galahad

Warrington has a lot of momentum with his career right now with two big wins in the past year, and he’s going to be a handful for anyone at 126. Warrington defeated Carl Frampton by a 12 round unanimous decision 12 months ago in December 2018, and he looked sensational.

The win for Warrington was the biggest of his career to this point. Since that fight, Warrington has beaten Sofiane Takoucht and Kid Galahad. Surprisingly, Galahad gave Warrington a tougher ight than Frampton did. One reason for that is how difficult it was for Frampton to make weight for the fight. Hes insce moved up to super featherweight, and he looks a lot better.

What will make it hard on Warrington is the movement of Stevenson more than anything, as he’s hard to hit. Stevenson’s punching power isn’t that great, and neither is his hand speed. His defense is what makes Stevenson hard to beat. Arum likes to compare Stevenson to Floyd Mayweather Jr., but that’s not a fair comparison. He’s not nearly as fast or as talented as Mayweather.

Stevenson is a good fighter, but he’s never going to be in the same league as Floyd. Arum likes to compare his fighters with past greats. He’s often saying how Vasiliy Lomachenko is like Muhammad Ali, and obviously they have nothing in common.