Shakur Stevenson believes he could win a world title as high as welterweight as he seeks meaningful fights in the super-featherweight division.
The Newark southpaw dazzled as an amateur, winning Olympic silver in the 2016 Rio Games, before claiming the WBO crown at featherweight against Joet Gonzalez (W12) in October 2019. The 23-year-old is now chasing the leading lights at 130lbs as part of his quest for multi-weight glory that he believes could eventually take him to 147lbs.
The WBO No.1 super-featherweight contender is next in line for the winner of Saturday’s world championship bout between title-holder Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton, but also fancies a tilt at WBC king and fellow Top Rank fighter Oscar Valdez, who dethroned puncher Miguel Berchelt in an all-Mexican battle in February. The slick Stevenson maintains that wars are not his style, however.
“Oscar Valdez got to get it though, seriously. He’s the best fighter at 130lbs other than me. I thought Miguel Berchelt would kill him,“ Stevenson (15-0, 8 KOs) told The Sun.
“[But] I don’t want to hit you with some six-piece combo shit and then you hit me back with the same. That don’t mean I’m not willing to dig deep and fight if I have to. I will. But I’m a dominant person, I like to win. I don’t like nothing close, I don’t want competitive fights, I want to dominate my opponents.
“My style is defensive but I’ve got an all-round style, really. It’s defence first, but if you watch somebody like Erislandy Lara, that’s real defence. He’s moving backwards and around the ring all the time. With me, watch my last fight, I ain’t doing that, I’m right there in front of people but it’s just that they can’t hit me.
“I think Jamel Herring will win [on Saturday],” added Stevenson. “But if I have to travel for a Frampton fight, I would do it. I can go to 140lbs to 147lbs, for sure. A lot of people think I’m little but I’m not. With my skillset, I know I won’t be outgunned going to the higher weights.”