Shakur Stevenson, the WBC lightweight titleholder, is growing increasingly impatient with WBA champion Gervonta Davis’ claims about a potential showdown.
Stevenson is set to fight Artem Harutyunyan on July 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., headlining an ESPN event. Meanwhile, Davis will face Frank Martin on pay-per-view on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Confident in his skills, Stevenson pledges to dominate Harutyunyan, who recently suffered a unanimous decision loss to Martin. However, Stevenson’s primary focus remains on a future encounter with Davis, a fight that could pit the two best lightweights against each other. Stevenson, 26, points out Davis’ age of 30 while scrutinizing Davis’ fighting history.
“How many times is he going to say he is going to fight an elite fighter and not fight them,” Stevenson said to Say Cheese! “He [is] 30 years old now, bro is 30, talking about he is going to fight me. He said next, okay, well, do it.”
Stevenson is a three-division titleholder, who is growing frustrated with his lack of big fights. In the modern era, there has been a crop of young and emerging fighters at and around his weight class including Davis, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, and Ryan Garcia. Yet Stevenson hasn’t faced any of his peers despite holding titles in three divisions and being a unified world champion in the junior lightweight division.
“Are you really going to fight me or just going to keep saying what you are going to do to somebody,” said Stevenson of Davis. “Shut up and fight me.”
Stevenson believes making a fight with him is simple, he just needs a contract.
“All you got to do is send an offer,” said Stevenson. “You are the A-side, I know. I am not saying I am the A-side, you’re the [person] with all the notoriety, however it go – but I am right here though. I am not going nowhere as soon as you say let’s fight, I am right here, let’s fight.”
Stevenson even voiced displeasure with Martin, who pulled out of a scheduled fight against him for the vacant WBC lightweight title which would have occurred in November of last year. Stevenson ended up winning the WBC lightweight title over Edwin De Los Santos in a lackluster fight. Martin hasn’t fought since last July.
“What did Frank Martin do to be elite?” questioned Stevenson. “Frank Martin is a dude who signed up to fight me, got famous for signing up to fight me, and then [didn’t] fight me.”