Shakur Stevenson is never far from the boxing headlines but not often because he is in the ring, though that could change as his promoter has now teased a huge future fight for the pound-for-pound star.
The potential matchup between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Shakur Stevenson has long been anticipated by fans as one of the most exciting fights in boxing. Their recent exchanges on social media have only added fuel to the fire and increased anticipation for a showdown.
However, as is often the case in boxing, the timing of such a fight is crucial. While fans may be eager for the matchup to happen immediately, there are factors such as commercial viability and maximising the hype surrounding the bout that promoters consider.
Stevenson’s upcoming fight in Newark and Davis’ scheduled bout in Las Vegas against Frank Martin demonstrates that both fighters have their own career paths and commitments at the moment.
With Stevenson promoted by Top Rank and Davis under the PBC banner, negotiations for a potential matchup could be complex. Speaking to Boxing Scene, Top Rank president Todd duBoef was asked if ‘Tank’ and Stevenson were on a collision course.
“I hope so, I think it makes sense. I think those weight classes between [1]30 and [1]40 pounds are brilliant. I think there’s a lot of moving and shaking going on there.
“I think they are all touching the weight classes and can touch all of them – their size is good enough that they can drop in weight to lose three to five pounds, and move up in weight to gain three to five pounds.
“So I think there’s a lot of fun that can be done there. But we’ve got to get everybody’s expectations to the table.
“We can talk about, ‘One day, [Oscar] De La Hoya and [Felix] Trinidad were going to fight again, they were going to do a rematch,’ ‘one day [Floyd Mayweather and De La Hoya were going to do a rematch,’ and you don’t want it to be the [Mike] Tyson-[Lennox] Lewis situation, where it was one day but one day too long.”
26-year-old WBC lightweight champion Stevenson was last out against Edwin De Los Santos late last year in a fight many called a dull points win. He return to the same venue, the Prudential Center, next, and DuBoef seems to think that building him up there, at home, is key business going forwards.
“We always believed in hometowns, right. We’ve always loved hometowns, and dating back to when Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] fought in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I put the fighting Mayweathers there, and then he fought after his first title defence, to Miguel Cotto being in Puerto Rico at least once a year. It’s always good to do that; it’s not good to disconnect, you know?”
Although not yet in the works, it seems as though this super fight could well be on the horizon soon.
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