Devin Haney is once again on the clock as regards his future weight class. WBC head honcho Mauricio Sulaiman tells Broadway Joel that “The Dream” has until Friday to decide whether he’ll stay at 135 or move to 140. If the former, he must face mandatory challenger Shakur Stevenson. If the latter, he’ll be in line to challenge Regis Prograis for “Rougarou’s” belt.
He also tells Joel that Jermall Charlo has no deadline for actually fighting and will never be stripped for inactivity, but I’ll deal with that when I interview him next week.
Stevenson (20-0, 10 KO) achieved WBC mandatory status in April by running over Shuichiro Yoshino and likewise sits atop the WBO rankings. The WBA don’t seem interested in having Gervonta Davis consolidate his title, so that would theoretically put Stevenson atop the mandatory rotation by default, but that does beg the question of what’s going on with Gustavo Lemos. The Argentinean stopped Lee Selby in an IBF final eliminator two Marches ago and the IBF is usually the most punctual about enforcing mandatories.
In any case, I’m not going to complain about Haney (30-0, 15 KO) vs Stevenson or Prograis (29-1, 24 KO) vs Stevenson. Let’s see how this plays out.