WBO super-lightweight world champion Shakur Stevenson is a fighter that many in the sport seem to want to avoid, but there is one fellow world champion who is hoping to move up in weight and secure a showdown with the undefeated Newark southpaw.
Stevenson became boxing’s third-youngest four-division world champion when he dethroned Teofimo Lopez back in January, adding to his successes at featherweight, super-featherweight and lightweight.
Stevenson had been expected to return to lightweight and defend the WBC belt in 2023, but the sanctioning body stripped him of his lightweight crown due to unpaid sanctioning fees. As a result, it seems as though the 28-year-old will remain at 140lbs, but if he does decide to drop back down, WBC super-featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster wants to meet him there.
Speaking with FightHype, Foster said facing the pound-for-pound star following his fight against Raymond Ford next month is ‘the first option.’
“I am just excited by what is next. Once we knock him [Ford] out, we get that big fight that we want with Shakur and the sky is the limit.
“That [fight with Shakur] would be the first option, but if we can’t get him, maybe the Roach-Zepeda winner.”
Foster – who and Ford collide in Houston on Saturday, May 30, whilst Lamont Roach Jr and William Zepeda have been ordered to fight for the vacant WBC lightweight title which Stevenson had held until February.
Meanwhile, Stevenson has also been linked to a move up to welterweight, but has maintained that a rehydration clause must be inserted into the contract of any potential fights up at 147lbs.