NEWARK, New Jersey – Shakur Stevenson made it known early Saturday morning that he will fight whatever lightweight his promoters at Top Rank Inc. put forward for his return to the ring in early 2023.
Fights with undefeated fully unified 135-pound champion Devin Haney and former champion Vasiliy Lomachenko seem particularly feasible because Haney and Lomachenko are also promoted by Bob Arum’s company. Stevenson mentioned Haney and Lomachenko during his in-ring interview with ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna after the Newark native convincingly beat Brazilian Robson Conceicao on Friday night at the Prudential Center, but reiterated his desire to fight Lomachenko. during his post-fight press conference.
“If they want me to fight Lomachenko, I’m definitely on board,” Stevenson said. “I would love that fight.”
The prevailing sentiment within the boxing industry is that Top Rank will pit Haney against Lomachenko if they win their respective fights next month.
Haney (28-0, 15 KOs), of Henderson, Nevada, is the heavy favorite to defeat former IBF/WBA/WBO champion George Kambosos Jr. (20-1, 10 KOs) in their immediate 12-round rematch on October 16 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. Ukraine’s Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) is also a heavy favorite over Worcester, Massachusetts’s Jamaine Ortiz (16-0-1, 8 KOs) five weeks before their 12-round bout Oct. 29 at the Hulu from Madison Square Garden. Theater in New York.
Arum informed BoxingScene.com that Haney-Lomachenko is not guaranteed to happen next if they come out of these upcoming matches unscathed. Haney could move up to the 140-pound junior welterweight limit if he beats Kambosos again, leaving Lomachenko-Stevenson an attractive alternative.
“All of these plans are just people talking, even in our office,” Arum said. “There are no real plans. We’ll just mix and match where we can and make good fights that way. Let’s say Haney beats Kambosos and Haney says, ‘Instead of fighting Lomachenko, I want to fight Shakur,’ we’d sit down and make that happen.”
Arum, 90, has a heartfelt interest between casual and hardcore boxing in a matchup between Lomachenko and Stevenson.
“It would be a great fight,” Arum said. “I get the buzz from prominent people who are boxing fans, but not, you know, in the weeds like a lot of boxing people. And that’s a fight that everyone brings up. It’s a fascinating fight. That is the point. The fights that are great fights are fights where there is guesswork as to which guy is going to win. Fights that the odds are close and that there are arguments on both sides. That makes for a great event and a great fight.”
Whoever Stevenson fights next, that fight will be contested at the 135-pound lightweight limit.
Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs), 25, outboxed Conceicao (17-2, 8 KOs) in their 12-round round and won easily via unanimous decision. However, the day before, Stevenson was stripped of his WBC and WBO 130-pound championships because he was 1.6 pounds overweight.
“I think it took a toll on my body a little bit,” Stevenson said when asked about not gaining weight. “People don’t know. They were sitting there talking about how it wouldn’t take me two hours to lose two pounds. They don’t know that I lost like 12 pounds in three days. So, it’s like, when you get to the end and you don’t have any more sweat coming off your body and your urine is orange, it’s over. As if everything had ended. There is no way you are going to gain weight. So, I think it affected me a little bit, but in the next fight I should be a hundred percent strong and feel really good.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
