The 25-year old budding superstar Shakur Stevenson (18-0, 9 KO’s) lost his Super Featherweight titles (WBC, WBO & The Ring) on Thursday’s weigh-ins (September 22nd), after exceeding the weight limit of 130lbs or 59kg by coming in at 131.6 pounds. The fight, held in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark in the Prudential Center, will still continue on Friday, September 23.
Tough Stevenson has been stripped of his belts, his opponent, Brazilian challenger Robson Conceição (17-1, 8 KO’s) will still be competing for all of the available three titles. Stevenson will not be liable to win any belts if he wins due to his weight violation.
Shakur Stevenson responded on Twitter about his titles loss, remarking that he gave it his all, and that his body could no longer reach the required weight to compete in the Super Featherweight division. He further went on to promise that his next fight would be as a Lightweight instead.
Stevenson has already made his mark at 130, beating top-ranked opponents such as Jeremiah Nakathila, Jamel Herring and Óscar Valdez in 2021 and 2022. Before fighting at Super Featherweight, Stevenson also fought a division down at 126 pounds where he beat prominent prospects or contenders in Christopher Diaz and Joet Gonzalez, the latter of whom he won his first world title (WBO Featherweight) by.
33-year old Robson Conceição, considered to be the division’s best Brazilian boxer, has fought at 130 since making his debut in April of 2017. Though Conceição lost by unanimous decision against Óscar Valdez the previous year in September, the result was considered controversial due to Conceição’s solid performance that suggested a different outcome on the scorecards, and came to the point that the Brazilian even filed a complaint. He showed solid form in his most recent match, held in January against Xavier Martinez, beating his opponent easily by way of unanimous decision.
While Conceição can culminate his hard work with his first world title come Friday, Shakur Stevenson will likely already be looking towards the future now that nothing is at stake for him in his current bout. With the Lightweight division currently stacked with talent such as Vasyl Lomachenko, Gervonta Davis, current unified champion Devin Haney and Teófimo López, his journey to become the pound-for-pound king (as is described on his Twitter page) lies full of both opportunities and roadblocks.
Watch the weigh-in between Shakur Stevenson and Robson Conceição below:
