Shakur Stevenson has suffered an injury of sorts during his training preparation to face Joe Cordina on the October 12th card set to be headlined by Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. The American WBC lightweight champion put out a message yesterday night revealing he had issues with one of his hands and would return in 2025.

Notably, Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 12 KO’s) did not substantiate on what sort of injury he suffered when he reached out to the public on Twitter to announce the damage to his hand.

While Stevenson’s claims of his “hand giving out on him” does not specify how and what sort of damage he accrued, his assertions that he would be returning in 2025 indicates his match with British contender Joe Cordina (17-1, 9 KO’s) will be canceled or postponed.

General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chairman and Riyadh Season organizer Turki Alalshikh has responded with his own message of support, though an official confirmation of the Stevenson-Cordina bout’s cancellation from either Riyadh Season or Matchroom―the latter to whom Stevenson signed with recently―is expected to be announced later this day [September 12th] or week.

With exactly one month away from October 12th, there is a possibility Cordina will continue to participate on the Beterbiev-Bivol card albeit against a different, substitute opponent.

Shakur Stevenson is currently in possession of the WBC lightweight (135 lbs) title and was set to defend it in a voluntary title defense against Cordina.