He was an undefeated fighter, an expert boxer who had won world titles in three weight classes and had recently parted ways with Top Rank, his longtime promoter, in search of larger paydays. But when the big fight everyone wanted to see him in didn’t happen, he went another route – taking a stay-busy bout against a lesser opponent, and taking significant criticism for doing so.
And in his very next fight after that, Terence Crawford knocked out Errol Spence Jr.
That’s what came to my mind earlier this week with the news about Shakur Stevenson’s next bout, his first appearance since parting ways with Top Rank. Stevenson is no Terence Crawford. Not yet, at least. There are still some situational parallels.
Stevenson is also a three-division titleholder, reigning at featherweight and junior lightweight prior to his current stint as the WBC lightweight titleholder. Stevenson recently exited from the Top Rank stable after spending his entire seven-year pro career with them, turning down a reported $3 million per fight.
Stevenson’s name had since come up for two major matches, one with WBA titleholder Gervonta Davis and the other with mandatory contender William Zepeda. Instead, Stevenson will face Joe Cordina, a former 130-pound titleholder coming off a technical knockout loss. Stevenson vs. Cordina will be on the Oct. 12 pay-per-view undercard to Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitriy Bivol.
Days after that announcement came another: Stevenson has signed with promoter Matchroom Boxing. It’s since been reported that the pairing is an initial two-fight deal.
For a fighter already facing a deluge of disapproval, these moves surely won’t calm the storm.
Stevenson took incoming fire, some of it fair, some of it not, after his past two victories. There was a dreary win over Edwin De Los Santos in November 2023, a night in which the two fighters combined to land just 105 punches over the course of 12 rounds. Stevenson landed 65 of them, throwing a mere 209, meaning he averaged about 5 of 17 per round. In terms of power shots, Stevenson was just 19 of 52, which means he threw about four power punches per round and landed less than two. A majority of his otherwise limited offensive output came in the form of jabs.
But then it came out that Stevenson had been fighting through injuries. The next fight would likely be better, we thought. Then came Stevenson’s wide win in July against Artem Harutyunyan. Stevenson’s offensive output was much better: He was 170 of 446 in total, including 126 of 284 with power shots. Still, Stevenson was so clearly outclassing Harutyunyan that many felt he could have done more to dominate on offense.
Afterward, Stevenson placed an even greater priority on defending himself on social media than he did in the ring, further inflaming his critics.
When Stevenson left Top Rank, those critics wondered if Stevenson was overvaluing himself. They felt he hadn’t done enough to turn himself into an attraction. They didn’t like his style. They didn’t like his substance.
So the fact that he’s facing Cordina instead of Davis or Zepeda isn’t helping his cause.
It’s no surprise that he selected Cordina. It’s also understandable to be upset about his selection.
Cordina, who is also a Matchroom Boxing fighter, has been on Stevenson’s radar since 2022. The Cardiff fighter expressed interest in facing Stevenson that year, then went on to knock out Kenichi Ogawa to win the IBF world title at junior lightweight. Stevenson, who was also in the 130-pound division at the time, congratulated Cordina and said he would cross the Atlantic Ocean to face him. Interactions between the two have been respectful. Cordina even defended Stevenson after the Harutyunyan fight.
In return, Stevenson defended Cordina’s shocking defeat to Anthony Cacace.
“He was weak fighting at 130,” Stevenson recently posted on X, before the fight with Cordina was officially announced. “He’s actually a really good fighter, just was sucking [himself] down to make a weight he shouldn’t have been making.”
Nevertheless, the fight is far less appealing now that Cordina’s coming off that May loss. When compounded with the expectations that we were potentially on the verge of Stevenson vs. Zepeda or Davis, the letdown is even greater.
Stevenson has been trying our patience. And now he’s asking for even more of it.
We should expect better from fighters like Stevenson. We want the clearly superlative talents, and those proclaiming to be so, to be tested against the best, not to waste their time or ours.
This year will go down as a forgettable one for Stevenson in the ring. This may turn out to be a business decision, an attempted investment that Stevenson hopes will pay dividends in 2025.
“This is a business, and it’s make as much money as you can in this business,” Stevenson posted a few days ago. “People want me to sit and wait around for literally every other fighter to make [their] decision whether they want to fight me now or later, but in reality I will be waiting and waiting. But nah, I’m [gonna] go get this bag over here real quick, ’cause that’s what matters most to me now.”
In particular, there is Matchroom’s relationship with Turki Alalshikh, who’s been financing boxing cards on behalf of Saudi Arabia, likely as part of an effort to change the narrative about that country and its regime. Although Alalshikh’s “Riyadh Season” is now working with several promoters, including Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, its biggest shows tend to be alongside Matchroom and Queensberry Promotions.
Stevenson briefly spoke with Alalshikh earlier this month during Riyadh Season’s first event in the United States, headlined by Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov. Now he’ll be on the latest lengthy Riyadh Season undercard, among the six bouts whose fighters are willing to take lower billing in exchange for this payday and the potential for more.
Stevenson may believe he can headline for Riyadh Season next year. And he may be hoping that the sizable checks Alalshikh hands out could bring in better opponents than Cordina.
After all, Matchroom’s stable doesn’t include any viable lightweight contenders. Looking at the rankings of The Ring and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, there’s Matchroom’s Andy Cruz, the 2020/2021 Olympic gold medalist who’s only recently turned pro and is just 4-0 (2 KOs). Queensberry has Mark Chamberlain (16-0, 12 KOs).
Zepeda is with Golden Boy, who like Matchroom is a broadcast partner of DAZN. Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy initially said he wouldn’t make a fight with Stevenson unless he signed with De La Hoya’s company. But then Golden Boy began looking into utilizing Zepeda’s position as mandatory challenger to Stevenson’s WBC belt.
Boxing reporter Mike Coppinger of ESPN says that Zepeda’s wife will soon give birth, “so he wasn’t available.” However, boxing reporter Jake “Jazz Hands of Stone” Donovan of RingTV.com says multiple sources told him that “Zepeda has not yet stepped aside as mandatory challenger.” And if Zepeda were to pass on this fight, Raymond Muratalla – a Top Rank fighter – would be next in line.
“Alalshikh has done this before, in fact with nearly every Riyadh Season boxing event reveal. There were two previous occasions where a title fight was announced before confirmation that it was approved by a sanctioning body,” Donovan wrote.
BoxingScene’s Declan Warrington spoke with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom about the short-term deal with Stevenson and his itinerary for the fighter.
“The first step of the plan is Joe Cordina, on Oct. 12, and if he’s victorious there, Zepeda in February, and then we’ll go from there,” Hearn said. “It’s a two-fight deal for us to get our teeth into the relationship, to show Shakur what we can do, and to build his profile into, probably, a Gervonta Davis fight next summer if he keeps winning.”
There is much that still needs to be fleshed out, it seems, both with Stevenson’s involvement on the Oct. 12 show and with what could come for Stevenson in 2025.
Will Alalshikh’s ties to Golden Boy and Top Rank persuade Zepeda and Muratalla to step aside?
Will the WBC defer to those who will earn them more money, as the sanctioning body so often does?
Does Stevenson’s contract with Matchroom tie him to DAZN only? Will Matchroom and Stevenson extend their business arrangement after these two fights or will Stevenson seek to move on and take advantage of being a promotional free agent?
Does Stevenson’s departure from Top Rank mean that he won’t be welcome to face its sizable stable of lightweight contenders, including Vasiliy Lomachenko and Muratalla? Would Top Rank be willing to let some of its 135-pounders fight off its own broadcast partner in ESPN?
If Stevenson were to stay longer with Matchroom, can a fight with Gervonta Davis still be made given Tank’s superstardom and how Premier Boxing Champions and Amazon’s Prime Video would of course want to be involved? Could there be a co-promotion and co-broadcast with DAZN? That’s what happened with the Crawford-Madrimov card, for example, which featured a few PBC fighters.
Many of these answers won’t matter until 2025. For now, the Cordina fight is a disappointment, much in the way that Crawford vs. Avanesyan wasn’t exactly a consolation prize in lieu of Crawford vs. Spence.
Seven months later, no one complained about the Avanesyan fight anymore.
With that in mind, a little more patience – but not too much – might actually be merited.
Time – hopefully not too much of it – will tell.
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.