Former featherweight and super-featherweight world champion, Shakur Stevenson, has claimed that he is being ‘frozen out’ of the lightweight title picture, as he seeks to claim world honours at his third weight-class.
The 2016 Olympic silver medallist has carried his success into the professional ranks since debuting in 2017, defeating Joet Gonzalez for the WBO Featherweight title just two years after his first outing.
In 2021, he added the WBO Super-Featherweight crown to his collection, knocking out Jamel Herring, before unifying the WBO and WBC titles with a wide points victory over Oscar Valdez just six months later.
Now Stevenson has moved up to 135lbs and recorded an emphatic stoppage win over Shuichiro Yoshino in his first outing at lightweight back in April.
With the undisputed champion, Devin Haney, imminently moving up a division, it seemed destined that Stevenson would challenge for a vacant title due to his #1 ranking with the WBO, but the 26-year-old has spoken out on social media to suggest that this may not be the case.
They clearly tryna freeze me out if y’all don’t see it y’all dumb.. But I can’t be mad because Everybody been tried to put me on game years ago! I’m gone take mine on the chin and stay focused 💯
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) August 21, 2023
“They clearly tryna freeze me out if y’all don’t see it y’all dumb.. But I can’t be mad because everybody been tried to put me on game years ago! I’m gone take mine on the chin and stay focused”
It was expected that Stevenson would meet former pound-for-pound superstar, Vasyl Lomachenko, with at least one vacant title up for grabs, but the undefeated American has since revealed that ‘Loma’ doesn’t want to face him and would rather retire than do so.
It remains to be seen how the lightweight division will look once Haney moves up, and despite his current frustration it’s hard to imagine Stevenson will be about of the title picture for long.