Shakur Stevenson’s attempt at winning a lightweight title will look differently depending on the outcome of the upcoming undisputed championship in that division.
The two-division titlist from Newark, New Jersey, is set to make his lightweight debut in front of his hometown crowd on April 8 against Shuichiro Yoshino at the Prudential Center. After that, Stevenson likely won’t have to wait too long for a chance to earn a title in his third division.
Top Rank head Bob Arum, who promotes the 25-year-old Stevenson, says his company’s aim is to match the ace southpaw with the winner of the 135-pound undisputed fight between Oakland, California’s Devin Haney, the champion, and former three-division titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko of Ukraine. Although that fight is not official, Arum said it most likely will take place May 20.
Arum, however, quickly noted that a Haney-Stevenson matchup is not a likely permutation in the event that Haney defeats Lomachenko because Haney will likely vacate his belts and move up to the 140-pound division. In that case, Stevenson, Arum said, would fight for one of Haney’s vacant titles.
On the other hand, if Lomachenko were to defeat Haney, Arum said a Lomachenko-Stevenson fight would be in the realm of possibility. Top Rank promotes all three fighters.
“The plan is for [Stevenson] to fight the Haney-Loma winner,” Arum told iD Boxing. “If Haney wins, he’s talking about going to 140 so that makes it a vacant title for Shakur.
“But if Loma wins, then Loma and Shakur is a fight that I would pay all kinds of money to watch. That’s really an unbelievable fight. Two real great students and artists in the game of boxing.”
Haney, 24, became the undisputed lightweight champion last June, when he defeated Australia’s George Kambosos Jr. by unanimous decision. Haney repeated that result in the contractually-mandated rematch four months later.
Lomachenko, 35, last fought in October, a points win over Jamaine Ortiz. It was the Ukrainian’s return to the ring after serving in his country’s war effort against the Russian invasion.
By Sean Nam