By Adam Baskin: Shakur Stevenson hinted in an interview this week that he will be facing Frank Martin next when he returns to the ring in November.
The fight between Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) and ‘The Ghost’ Martin (18-0, 12 KOs), if it happens, will be for the vacant WBC lightweight title.
Martin, 28, is ranked #4 WBC, ambitious and fearless. He’s not the type that would swerve Shakur the way that many boxing fans believe Haney and Gervonta Davis are doing.
Martin’s recent wins:
- Artem Harutyunyan
- Michel Rivera
- Jackson Marinez
Champion Devin Haney fled the division rather than sticking around to face Shakur, as he chose to move up to 140 to take on WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis.
#1 WBC Vasily Lomachenko won’t be fighting until next year, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
Shakur revealed that his contract with Top Rank will end next year. So whether he’s still with Arum’s company next year to fight Lomachenko remains to be seen.
If Shakur signs with PBC, it still doesn’t mean he’ll get the fights he wants against Haney or Gervont Davis.
When Shakur was asked if he’d move up to 140 to face Haney, he said, “I wouldn’t count it out.” It wasn’t the solid affirmative answer that one would have liked to have heard.
“Next year will be the end of my contract,” said Shakur Stevenson to DAZN Boxing Show when asked when his contract with Top Rank will end. “I don’t want to discuss those kinds of details, but definitely, Top Rank has been good to me.
“We reached out to Devin [Haney]. We had a whole dispute on the money side. We’re talking to some people. It’s going to be a big, fun fight,” said Shakur about his next fight.
“I wish, but Lomachenko said he don’t want to fight me. He said next year, but it’s a big fight on the way for sure. It’s a name. It’s an up-and-coming undefeated fighter that is hungry and wants to fight me. I don’t know,” said Shakur with a big smile on his face when Akin Reyes said, “Frank Martin.”
“No, I don’t know about that,” said Shakur when Reyes said, ‘Maybe down the line, you’ll be with PBC when your contract is up.”
“It’s a big fight on the way. We’re going to see who the opponent is. As long as the business makes sense, we can make it happen.
Akin Reyes: “You were getting his [Devin Haney] his attention in the boxing ring after he beat Lomachenko. There was a viral of you looking at him. That was a funny image. So do you think he avoided you as well in the ring?”
Shakur Stevenson: “Usually, when somebody comes in the ring and another fighter is in there, you’re going to acknowledge him and talk a little. He done that with other fighters. He went out there with Ryan Garcia.
“He went in the ring with Lomachenko. Everybody stayed in the ring, and they talked and bigger up a fight between them two. I think he ran out to let the world know that he don’t want to fight me.”
Barak Bess: “He said something like, ‘I’m #1.’
Shakur: “Yeah, but he said it while he was walking out. If that was me in that situation, especially if he came in the ring by himself with no one else with him, why wouldn’t you say something to me with six or seven people in there? Why would that stop him from saying something to me? I didn’t get that.”
Bess: “If he said he was struggling to make 135, would you be willing to go up to 140 to fight him?”
Shakur: “I mean, I wouldn’t count it out. We’ll see.”
