By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson says he’s willing to face the best, including Vasily Lomachenko. It’s not up to him to fight the likes of former three-division world champion Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs).
Stevenson says he’ll be willing to take on all challenges after picking up the WBO super featherweight title in April or May.
If he’s serious about that, he should be willing to fight Lomachenko now instead of saying it’s not up to him to make the fight happen.
If Stevenson is the big superstar that his promoter Bob Arum is always talking about, he should throw him in the ring with Lomachenko and let him prove it.
Assuming Stevenson loses badly, at least Arum will be able to focus on other fighters that have the potential to become stars.
“Lies if it were up to me, I would be fighting Loma next,” said Stevenson on his Twitter account.
It sounds like Stevenson is making excuses for not being wanting the fight with Lomachenko bad enough. With as much pull as Stevenson has, he should be able to get any fight he wants, as long as it can be negotiated.
It’s easy for fighters to hide behind their promoter when they don’t want to fight somebody because of the risk of them losing.
The way Stevenson is talking, he sounds like he’s not willing to push for the Lomachenko fight, and that’s understandable. If Stevenson isn’t ready to take on ‘Hi-Tech’ Stevenson, no one will blame him and call him chicken.
Lomachenko would jump at the chance of fighting Stevenson (13-0, 8 KOs), but it doesn’t look like Top Rank will let him take that fight for obvious reasons.
If Lomachenko beats Stevenson and makes him quit, Bob Arum’s dream of turning Shakur into a star will go up in smoke. Stevenson already looking very beatable in his fights against the lesser opposition he’s been facing.
Stevenson’s promoters at Top Rank want him to face the winner of the February 27th fight between WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton fight.
Top Rank is having Stevenson target what is arguably the weakest link in terms of the champions at 130 in going after the Herring vs. Frampton winner speaks volumes.
Why isn’t Top Rank having Stevenson face the winner of the Miguel Berchelt vs. Oscar Valdez on March 20th? It’s one thing for Stevenson not to be pressing to fight Lomachenko, but it’s another thing altogether for him not to be speaking up about wanting to fight the
“And honestly, after I win this belt [WBO] in April/May, I’m taking all challenges. Line em up. I’m going to say this once.
“I damn near sparred everybody, all the top dudes at 130 and 135. Nobody beat me up. That’s all facts. The only person who did was Bud Crawford when I was 18,” said Stevenson.