By Matt Lieberman: Shakur Stevenson took to social media today to call out for an opponent for his next fight.
Shakur will need to move up to 140 if he wants to get fights because his situation is hopeless at 135. Even when he moves up to light welterweight, he’ll probably need to become a mandatory like Regis Prograis did before he’s given a shot, and that could take a while.
If Top Rank hasn’t told Shakur the cold hard facts that he’s going to be avoided at 135 by the top guys in the division, they need to because he’s going to sit & rot without getting these fighters to face him:
- Gervonta Davis
- Frank Martin
- William Zepeda
- Isaac Cruz
At 140, Stevenson can forget about fighters like Ryan Garcia, Teofimo Lopez, or Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero fighting him because that’s not going to happen either. Those guys are off-limits.
The former two-division world champion and current WBC lightweight mandatory Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) wants to return to the ring two months after his sixth round knockout win over Shuichiro Yoshino in April.
Shakur’s manager J Prince said today that they would like a fight with undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney next, but it’s unclear that he wants that match-up.
The way that Haney ran out of the ring Shakur climbed through the ropes after his win over Vasily Lomachenko, it’s obvious that he doesn’t want that fight.
If Haney did want to fight Shakur, he would have stayed in the ring and accepted his challenge. He didn’t, and he wants no part of fighting him.
There had been talk of Jamaine Ortiz wanting to fight Shakur next, but he’s gone quiet.
Shakur Stevenson wants Haney
“Yeah, there’s no question mark. We want that fight, and we are available, we’re ready, we’re waiting, and the only way that fight don’t happen is they don’t want it,” said manager J Prince to Fighthype when asked if he’s interested in setting up a fight between Shakur Stevenson and undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney.
Yo any fighter that want wreck wit me I’m free don’t got no opponent, no date or nun.. So for all the fighters screaming my name reach out it’s free smoke for all of u 😤
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) June 30, 2023
“When a person don’t want to fight, it’s a lot of ways of saying they don’t want it. One of the best ways is they overbid themselves. So we just know we’re ready and waiting,” said Prince about Stevenson being ready to take on Haney.
“That’s private, but the most important thing is we’re ready. Shakur definitely wants a piece of his a**. I think the fans want to witness the fight because I think it would be a good one. So it ain’t on us. We’re ready.
“One thing about Shakur. He ain’t ducking nobody,” said Prince when asked if he’d be interested in matching Stevenson against Gervonta Davis or Vasily Lomachenko.
“That’s the beauty of having a fighter like him. If Lomachenko want it, he can get it. Whoever falls in that slot, we going to embrace it.”
