Shakur Stevenson Awaits WBC To Announce His Title Fight & Is Happy To Face Navarrete At Catchweight
Shakur Stevenson’s next fight depends on the decision of the WBC, as the 135-pounder waits patiently for his next opponent.
Following Devin Haney’s decision to move up to 140 pounds, the WBC made the ‘Dream’ a ‘champion in recess’ at lightweight.
This had the impact of putting Stevenson in line to fight for the vacant WBC title against the next highest-ranked contender, which at the moment is Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Although that may be the case, the attempts to get the fight with Loma do not appear to be successful.
And given that Loma will not likely fight this year, having been on the end of a controversial unanimous-decision loss to Haney, Bob Arum confirmed that Stevenson will have to consider other options.
“We’ll have to see what the [WBC] decides. They’ll have to go down the rankings and see who’s available. We believe he [Loma] will come back sometime early in 2024.
“He’s rated very highly by all four (sanctioning body) organizations. He’ll fight for a title eventually, just not versus Shakur Stevenson who is going to fight later this year,” Arum
In response, Stevenson has targeted a bout with Emanuel Navarrete after the latter’s comments about him following his win over Oscar Valdez to retain his WBO junior lightweight belt.
Navarrete beat Valdez via a unanimous decision, which caught the attention of Stevenson, after the champion downplayed his skills.
Following his victory, Navarrete was asked about the prospect of facing Shakur, even though the latter is at a higher weight class. The Mexican confirmed he was ‘not scared.’
So provided that Shakur gets over his WBC title fight at 135, once the organization decides an opponent for him to fight for the vacant belt, he was open to having a fight.
Yeah I wouldn’t mind it at all tbh.. Just gotta get this belt at 135 first and we can square up at a catch weight if he wit it https://t.co/zaYoEO4TU3
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) August 13, 2023