WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson has been begging for the opportunity to prove himself as one of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters in the sport but has found difficulty landing a big-name opponent. However, recent reports suggest that Stevenson is on the verge of a monumental deal to face WBA champion Gervonta Davis in a tantalising all-American unification affair and now Stevenson has opened up on how talks have progressed.
Stevenson entered the professional ranks with a heap of expectation on his shoulders as a result of his impressive amateur pedigree which saw him win Olympic silver medal at Rio 2016. Although, that expectation was justified as the slick southpaw breezed through the rankings and became the WBO featherweight champion in just his 13th professional bout.
In 2021, Stevenson jumped up to 130lbs and had similar success, knocking out Jamel Herring for the WBO title before outclassing both Oscar Valdez and Robson Conceicao before moving up to a hotly-contested lightweight division, where he outpointed Edwin De Los Santos for the WBC strap in just his second outing at the weight.
Despite the obvious talent of Stevenson, his back-footed, defensive style has seemingly hampered his ability to secure fights against the top fighters at the weight because of his suspect pay-per-view draw.
Nevertheless, recent whispers suggest that a clash between Stevenson and ‘Tank’ Davis is edging closer and Stevenson told Boxing News that he is waiting on an offer.
“Yeah [there has been conversations between our teams]. The only thing that I heard was that they wanted to make the fight and we just told them to send an offer.
“We haven’t heard nothing back yet but that fight is going to happen. I’m not going to act like the fight is not going to happen, me and him are the best, we are the best fighters coming up, best fighters in the 135lb division – there is no way that the fight is not happening.
“I know that fans want to scream and say all of these things like ‘this guy is ducking’, they want to find a person and say that somebody is ducking. I ain’t scared to fight him and he is not scared to fight me and it is going to be a hell of a fight when it happens.”
The contest was touted to take place in just over three months’ time, but it is suspected that a fight of that magnitude may take a little longer to organise. Yet, Stevenson went on to reveal that what he believes to be the ‘biggest fight in boxing’ could still take place as soon as November.
“Yeah, definitely [November 23rd is a possibility]. If terms can be agreed and everything then it makes sense for him and me business wise, the fight definitely could happen.
“That is the biggest fight in all of boxing. I don’t think that there is a fight bigger than me and Tank, maybe Bud [Terence Crawford] and Canelo [Alvarez] is right there but truthfully if we are speaking skill-for-skill and what the fight fans want to see, people who appreciate and love the sport of boxing – that is the fight.”
In spite of these comments, Shakur Stevenson has also ‘verbally agreed’ on a deal to take on undefeated Mexican William Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) – who is ranked as the #1 contender with all four sanctioning bodies.
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