By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson will be ringside for next month’s headliner fight between undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and Vasily Lomachenko on May 20th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The idea is for Shakur to fight the winner, but it could prove difficult to make that match-up. Haney wants to face Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis next if he comes out victorious against Lomachenko, and he’s not going to want Stevenson to spoil his plans.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) will attend the Haney-Lomachenko contest. Still, he’s not sure whether he’ll face Haney if he’s victorious because there are question marks about whether the four-belt lightweight champion can continue making the 135-lb division.
Haney has been steadily growing in the last year. He looked like death warmed over, making weight for his last fight in October against former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr in their rematch in Melbourne, Australia. This writer has never seen a fighter look as drained as Haney in making weight for the Kambosos clash.
Haney’s appearance was someone stuck in the trenches during World War I, underfed and dealing with constant shelling from the enemy.
Given his appearance, it’s hard to believe that he’ll ever be able to make 135 again without collapsing. Since that fight, Haney has been seen eating pizza and blowing up in weight.
When you barely reached 135 for your last fight, the last thing you want to do is stuff your food vacuole with calorie-dense foods like pizza and shoot up to what appeared to be close to 170.
“Shakur is coming to Vegas the weekend after next for the Haney-Lomachenko fight, and we’ll be talking to him and his management team, and again, he’s a great, great fighter, and he’s become a big attraction now with the sales in Newark [New Jersey] and the ratings he does,” said Bob Arum to the Ringside Reporter about Shakur Stevenson.
“He’ll be fighting in the fall, and we’ll be having that discussion with him and James Prince.
“Haney has to see how hard it is to make lightweight, and this fight [Lomachenko] will be a test. He’s a big boy, and again, everything is up in the air, and we’re awaiting for what should be a great, great fight in a couple of weeks,” said Arum about the May 20th fight between Haney and Lomachenko.
