The lightweight division is as hot as it’s ever been and one man in the mix for marquee fights is Shakur Stevenson.
A former world champion at 126lbs and 130lbs the 25-year-old moved up to 135lbs on April 8 with an eye-catching stoppage win against Shuichiro Yoshino.
Following Gervonta Davis’ victory against Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney facing Vasily Lomachenko on May 20 there are two huge fights for Stevenson to go after. But would he rather face ‘Tank’ or champion Haney should he beat his Ukrainian challenger?
Stevenson was a guest recently on the Inside Boxing Live podcast and gave this answer.
“I’ve been getting asked that question and it’s hard to give a real answer. The belts are lovely. You think about just fighting for all the belts with one opponent. You ain’t got to go get them from like two or three different dudes and you could be Undisputed champ.
“Tank has that superstar appeal to him. A fight with me and him it’s just gonna be like two superstars. I’ll be able to display my superstardom to me [and] how great I am as a superstar too. It’s a very hard question. I can’t really give you an answer, but I would love to fight both of them dudes. Honestly, I’m ready like right now though.”
Stevenson, who hopes to return sometime between July and September, may not get a Davis or a Haney next but one fight that did appeal to him was one against former champion George Kambosos.
“I would love to fight him, but I think that’d get bad for him,” he predicted.
Stevenson’s name will certainly be part of post-fight interviews should Haney, in particularly, defeat Lomachenko at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas but how does he see the action playing out?
“I think Haney smokes him,” he answered.
“He’s too big. His size is going to play a big part. He [Haney] was complaining about Lomachenko being dirty but that don’t matter when you’re that big. What can he do dirty to you? You’re big, be dirty to him! Put your body weight on him. He’s gonna get tired from that. I just think Devin is too big for him, but Lomachenko is still Lomachenko so he’s still gonna have some moments.”
