Two-weight world champion, Shakur Stevenson, believes that one of the reasons a fight between him and Vasily Lomachenko is failing to manifest is due to their sparring in the past.
With Devin Haney set to move up to super-lightweight and vacate at least one of his lightweight belts, it was presumed that Stevenson and Lomachenko would meet for that WBC vacant title.
However, other plans for the Ukrainian have led Stevenson to believe that ‘Loma’ would rather retire than face him.
In an interview on the 2nd Wind Podcast, the 26-year-old explained that one reason why the Ukrainian superstar may be refusing to face him is because of their previous sparring when the older man was preparing to face Guillermo Rigondeaux.
“Lomachenko was fighting somebody else, I called to find out if I could go spar him, and they said ‘no, he is not fighting a southpaw, you can’t spar him’.
So, I waited and as soon as he was fighting Rigondeaux I called them again, ‘yo, can I come spar Lomachenko’ and they said ‘yeah, you can come, they are not going to pay you though’.”
Stevenson revealed that the lack of payment didn’t faze him and, although he doesn’t give specific details on the rounds, believes the work in the gym led Lomachenko to avoid him down the line.
“I don’t need no pay, I don’t care about getting paid, that is not my agenda. My agenda is just to get in there with the best.”
“I sparred him, we did a bunch of rounds and then they ended up paying me, because they needed me a lot more than they thought they needed me. They used me a lot more than they thought they was going to. ”
“That’s probably the problem with this situation, because now it’s like we can’t get him. It’s a big risk [for them], the reward is big too though, I don’t know what is up with people.”
Stevenson’s next outing will be for the WBC belt regardless, but it’s as yet unknown who will fill the opposite corner.