J. Prince and Al Haymon are pressed with the rare situation to potentially do business together.
A vacant lightweight title fight between Shakur Stevenson and Frank Martin has been ordered by the WBC, BoxingScene has learned. The two sides have until September 5 to reach terms and avoid a purse bid hearing.
Stevenson is co-promoted by Top Rank and Antonio Leonard Promotions and managed by J. Prince and Josh Dubin. Martin is promoted by Errol Spence’s Man Down Promotions and primarily fights on Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)-branded shows.
The ordered title fight comes as rumors have swirled of a potential showdown between the unbeaten lightweight contenders.
Stevenson (20-0, 10KOs) moved up to lightweight earlier this year.
He was forced to do so after he missed weight and left his WBC/WBO junior lightweight titles at the scales ahead of a twelve-round win over Robson Conceicao last September in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey. The 2016 Olympic Silver medalist and former two-division titlist returned home for his latest win, a sixth-round knockout of unbeaten Shuchiro Yoshino on April 8 to become the mandatory challenger for the WBC title.
Stevenson campaigned to challenge undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney (30-0, 15KOs), who last defended in a May 20 unanimous decision win over Vasiliy Lomachencko at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Haney and Stevenson exchanged words in the ring after the fight, but talks never got off the ground even after the WBC intervened to get a status update from its champ.
Haney opted to instead enter talks for a targeted challenge of WBC junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis later this year. The move came at the expense of his being named WBO ‘Champion in Recess’, which cleared a path for Stevenson to next challenge for the title.
Lomachenko is still ranked number-one in the WBC lightweight rankings but has opted to sit out the rest of the year. Stevenson is ranked number two despite his being confirmed as the mandatory. Number three is Mexico City’s Isaac Cruz (25-2-1, 17KOs), who clearly has other plans as he has now twice passed on the opportunity to face Stevenson in a WBC-sanctioned fight.
The search led to Martin (18-0, 12KOs), a 28-year-old Detroit native who lives in Indianapolis and trains with Spence in the greater Dallas area.
Martin advanced in the WBC rankings after a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over then-unbeaten Artem Harutyunyan on July 15 in Las Vegas. A twelfth-round knockout was enough to preserve a close win for the rising contender after a more decisive 2022 campaign that saw wins over Romero Duno, Jackson Marinez and Michel Rivera.
By Jake Donovan