Last month, Unbeaten star Shakur Stevenson believes there is only one fellow fighter who could challenge him for the position as pound-for-pound number one.
Last month, Stevenson became a three-division world champion and has now begun a new stage of his career, as he aims to become the undisputed king of the lightweight division.
He outpointed Edwin De Los Santos to claim the WBC lightweight title in what some described as an uneventful contest that broke an unwanted record, although regardless of the affair, the Texan’s name is now well and truly in the pound-for-pound mix.
This comes after Stevenson claimed world honours at both featherweight and super-featherweight, unifying the belts in the latter, and now he aims to go one better and become undisputed at 135lbs. In an interview with DAZN, Stevenson named the only man who may ‘battle him’ in the pound-for-pound rankings once he’s claimed all four belts.
“After I get that undisputed [lightweight title, I am number one pound-for-pound]. If I get undisputed at 135lbs, I am going to be a three weight-class world champion, Terence Crawford nine times out of ten is probably going to be retired, I mean s**t throw me up there, it is time. The only person that I will probably battling at that moment would be Inoue, he is still young.”
“Canelo is doing his s**t, he is fighting the best competition available and he is beating them, but it is going to be hard [for him], because I feel like I will be an undefeated fighter, reigning in the [lightweight] division and I will probably be ready to go up to 140lbs and win a belt.”
Stevenson went on to add that he would be willing to fight as high as welterweight, but first he must do the business at lightweight, where he is linked to a fight with Vasyl Lomachenko, who is expected to challenge for the vacant WBO title in early 2024.