By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Shakur Stevenson just revealed his ultimate boxing plan.
The super featherweight champion can’t wait any longer and just contacted the World Boxing Council (WBC) to arrange a fight with the current undisputed lightweight king of the world, Devin Haney.
The development was first confirmed by Boxing Scene’s Jake Donovan, explaining that Stevenson filed a request to fight Haney as his mandatory challenger for all his lightweight belts.
After Stevenson’s technical knockout victory over Shuichiro Yoshino several months ago, the American champion called out Haney for a mega-fight in front of the thousands in attendance at the Prudential Center in Newark.
As time went by and no lightweight champion showed interest in fighting Stevenson, it was the undefeated American who did the leg work and made things possible with the WBC.
WBC then announced that they already sent notice to Haney’s camp and gave him days to decide whether he will be fighting Stevenson or push through with his plan of moving up in the 14-lbs. division.
A week ago, several boxing sources already confirmed that Haney will be fighting the no. 1 challenger in the division, Arnold Barboza Jr. after Teofimo Lopez decided to retire from the sport.
However, when Lopez knew that Haney will try to take over the division he just dominated when he beat Josh Taylor for the WBO junior welterweight belt, the former lightweight king came out of retirement immediately.
“Came out of retirement because the next move was for Devin Haney to fight sorry-a** Arnold Barbaza for my WBO championship title at 140lbs,” Lopez posted.
Now it’s up to boxing promotions Top Rank to make the mega-fight happen. Last time, the two pugs already went back-and-forth and were on the verge of negotiations but prize money percentages halted the process.
Haney is coming off a huge payday after a controversial win against Vasiliy Lomachenko several months ago and is eager to extend his streak of undefeated professional fights to 31 victories.
On the other hand, the hungry Stevenson is also yet to taste his first-ever professional defeat and is unbeaten in 20 fights with 10 knockouts.
Both fighters possess technical skills and are effective boxers using their jabs. Many compare the two pugs exactly to high-level punchers who can throw timely combinations to disrupt their opponents’ rhythm while keeping their guard up, using the shoulder roll defense with ease.
Will the fight happen? Will the fight fans finally see the Stevenson-Haney matchup or will the current lightweight king move up weight and challenge Lopez for supremacy?
