Shakur Stevenson is deemed by many to be one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, but one Hall of Fame inductee believes that Stevenson, who is usually keen for opportunities to enhance his legacy, is in the wrong for purposefully swerving a showdown with Devin Haney.
Stevenson became a four-division world champion back in January, dominating Teofimo Lopez to capture the WBO super-lightweight world title. Since then, the Newark southpaw has been linked to a clash with welterweight ruler, Haney, but he has maintained that he would require his fellow American to move down in weight for a catchweight of 144lbs.
Now that Stevenson has signed with Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing, it’s unclear whether that will make a fight with Haney easier or harder to arrange. Instead, ‘The Dream’ is now expected to face Stevenson’s close friend, Keyshawn Davis, next.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, two-division world champion Tim Bradley stated that he believes Stevenson purposefully avoided a scrap with the WBO welterweight champion, even after Haney agreed to drop to the required catchweight.
“Shakur Stevenson, he purposefully went M.I.A., man. He was like, ‘I think what Roy [Jones Jr.] said, wait until [I am at] 147lbs, Tim said the same thing. However, if you was going to make the fight at 144lbs… nah, I ain’t going to do it. I’mma let my brother, Keyshawn Davis, go ahead and fight you’.”
Whilst Haney has been ordered to take on Keyshawn Davis, Bradley went on to admit that he understands Haney’s hesitation to proceed with the fight, believing that Haney will be underpaid in a high-risk, low-reward defence.
“You [Haney] are left with just Keyshawn and I know that you don’t want to do the Keyshawn fight. Hell no, why? Why do the Keyshawn fight? Ooh, it’s a good fight. S**t, I think that it is a lose-lose situation; [if] you beat him, ‘oh he don’t have no experience’, [if] he beats you, ‘oh, you ain’t that good.’
“Is the money going to be right? I don’t know if the money is going to be right. You are going to make some money but you ain’t going to make the money that you want to make.”
Haney and Davis’ teams now have just 11 days to reach an agreement, or the fight will go to purse bids. Meanwhile, it remains unclear who Stevenson will face in his Zuffa Boxing debut.
