By Chris Williams: Shakur Stevenson is already talking about fighting Vasily Lomachenko or Oscar Valdez after his next fight against WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring on October 23.
Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) is 100% confident that he’s going to make easy work of WBO 130-lb champion Herring (23-2, 11 KOs) and then move forward to face either WBC super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) or Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) if he’s willing to move down to 130.
Lomachenko, 33, would take the fight with Stevenson if he were popular and if there was money to be made. Top Rank might not be on board with letting Lomachenko ruin another one of their young fighters.
Unfortunately, Stevenson hasn’t been able to build a fanbase yet, largely because of the opposition that Top Rank has matched him against, and also doesn’t have a fan-friendly fighting style.
Lomachenko plans on fighting in December against a still to be determined opponent and then in early 2022 against undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.
Shakur wants Lomachenko at 130
“I sparred him. I actually did a lot of rounds with Lomachenko for the camp where he fought [Guillermo] Rigondeaux,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype.
“We were sparring twelve rounds every other day. We sparred 12 rounds, 10 rounds, 8 rounds, and did many rounds in that camp. I think I can, but it’s up to Lomachenko,” said Shakur when asked if he thinks a fight between him and Loma can happen.
“I keep hearing him say in interviews that he’s not going back down to 130, and I’m not planning on going up to 135 no time soon.
“It’s all up to Lomachenko. If he feels like coming down and meeting me at 130. He’s a natural 130-pounder. 135 isn’t his natural real weight. It’s up to him.
“Maybe after I get this belt [WBO super featherweight title] and get some more buzz to my name, he’s going to want to fight me, and he’ll start calling my name out. I won’t be one of these fighters that duck a fighter. I’m going to give him an opportunity soon,” said Stevenson.
Lomachenko would accept a fight with Stevenson in a second if he had a real chance of getting it, but Top Rank won’t let that fight happen.
Stevenson, 24, is too young for them to be letting Lomachenko fight him and knock him out like he did his recent opponent Masayoshi Nakatani.
Shakur is too slow and weak for Top Rank to let him fight Lomachenko because he would get beaten badly, and that would wreck their hopes of turning him into a star in some form or another.
Stevenson targeting Oscar Valdez after Herring
“I would have taken Oscar Valdez first,” said Stevenson when asked if he’d have preferred to fight Oscar Valdez first over Jamel Herring.
“Oscar Valdez is a young, undefeated fighter that has never lost. No one has beaten him. It’s more of an attraction.
“He’s more of a Mexican fighter, and I’m black. Mexican vs. a black makes big, big fights. I would have taken Oscar Valdez, but it’ll make a bigger fight after I go get this belt [from Herring on October 23] and take it from Jamel, and then me and Oscar Valdez square off.
“I want to take that fight [with Valdez] right after. And I don’t want to wait, but it’s politics. Oscar Valdez is making Top Rank money.
“He’s going to be able to sell out arenas after that win he had against [Miguel] Berchelt, and they want to use him to their advantage. I don’t think that they’re in a rush to throw him in with me.
“It’s business. I used to sit back and complain, and I still complain. But you got to realize that’s not going to do too much. They are in control. They’re in power.
“I will tell the world that they [Top Rank] love Oscar Valdez, and they don’t want me to be in the ring with Oscar Valdez because they know what’s going to happen.
“And Oscar Valdez don’t want it either. So he can sit there after the fight and say, ‘Oh, I want to fight Shakur Stevenson.’
“But when I reach out, there ain’t no talks of me and him fighting. He’s going to say after an interview, but he ain’t really jumping in towards it. He don’t want that,” said Shakur.
There’s NO chance of Top Rank allowing Stevenson anywhere near their money-maker, Oscar Valdez. That’s not happening anytime soon, and by the time it does, Valdez will likely already be a shot fighter, and Top Rank will have nothing to lose in putting him in with Stevenson.
Unfortunately, the way Stevenson is rapidly growing, he’s going to be fighting at 147, whether he likes it or not, and that’ll end any chances of him and Valdez fighting.
Valdez has a fight on September 10th against Robson Conceicao, and if he wins that, he’ll likely face Miguel Berchelt in a rematch. Top Rank isn’t going to let Valdez fight Stevenson, and I don’t think he wants that match.
Shakur looking like a 147-pounder
“That’s my first fight in Atlanta,” said Shakur about his next fight at the State Farm Arena against Herring.
“I’m not going to compare myself with Tank. Tank is someone that lives a certain lifestyle and is flashy. He’s always in Atlanta. He’s lived in Atlanta.
“That’s like a second home to him, so I ain’t going to compare myself with Tank. I’m younger than him too. That’s also in play.
“Right now, I’m going to get my foot in the door and see where I go from there,” said Stevenson.
Great work today with the young champ @ShakurStevenson pic.twitter.com/Ubnf2deUW1
— Rougarou (@RPrograis) September 2, 2021
With the size of Stevenson, he’s going to be fighting at 147 very soon. In the above photo, Stevenson is clearly bigger and heavier looking than former WBA 140-lb champion Regis Prograis.
Is Shakur a weight bully? It’s possible. He probably should be campaigning at 135 at the very least, if not 140, right. I mean, he’s bigger than Prograis, who is a natural 140-pounder, so that makes Shakur a light welterweight.
You can understand why Stevenson chooses to fight at 130, though, because it gives him a big advantage over his opposition in that weight class. If Stevenson had to fight guys his own size at 140, he’d take punishment and might even lose.
At some point soon, Stevenson will be forced to move up to his natural weight class of 140, if not 147. You can only get away with draining yourself huge amounts of weight to fight in a lower weight class that isn’t suited to your body for so long before you’re forced to campaign in your natural weight class.
If this were the old days with same-day weigh-ins for fights, Stevenson would have no choice but to fight at 135 or maybe 140 because he’s way too big to be fighting at 130.
