While Shakur Stevenson is in the midst of preparing for his November 16th fight against Edwin De Los Santos next week, the American lightweight was available to talk about potential opponents he might face if he makes it past De Los Santos. Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez seemed to be on Stevenson’s hit list, hinting at him possibly moving up to super lightweight.
During an interview with Fight Hype, Shakur Stevenson (20-0, 10 KO’s) seemed to be open to the prospect of fighting all the big names near or around his age range and weight class, including American fighters Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s) and Devin Haney (30-0, 15 KO’s).
“I got a lot more faith in the Tank (Gervonta Davis) fight happening before the Devin (Haney) fight,” Stevenson told Fight Hype.
“Tank is a competitor, and I know deep down inside he wants to prove to the world that he can beat me, as I want to prove I can beat him. Honestly, I feel like he will fight me. With Devin, even if he was to get bigger in weight, he wouldn’t want to fight them dudes at 147.“
Stevenson’s words seem to indicate Gervonta Davis is the more competitive fighter than Devin Haney, which is an opinion not truly reflected in reality. While Davis is one of the most recognizable fighters from America, it is hard to truly define most fighters as competitive as they stick to fighting opponents who are signed to the same promotion as themselves.
Davis has done this throughout most his career, having only deviated from this trend when he fought and defeated Ryan Garcia on April 22nd this year. Notably, Garcia also had to move down from his usual weight class at 140 lbs to fight Davis and was hit with rehydration clauses.
Due to the way the boxing industry is set up, it is difficult for fighters to be competitive if the roster of their promotion lacks the talent necessary for them to compete at the highest level. Davis has thus far been comfortable fighting opponents inside his own promotion, and has seemingly made no attempts to fight fighters not associated with his own promotion of the PBC.
Devin Haney is more flexible in this case as he is essentially a free agent and fights with whichever promotion suits his goals, or allows him to progress throughout the ranks. This is reflected in his move to temporarily join Top Rank after a notable career fighting under Matchroom/DAZN. During his stint at Top Rank, Haney became the undisputed lightweight champion by defeating George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KO’s) in June of 2022, and this year in May, Haney notched another pivotal win on his resume by defeating future Hall of Famer Vasyl Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO’s).
Haney is currently set to face WBC super lightweight champion Regis Prograis (29-1, 24 KO’s) on December 9th after moving away from Top Rank following the expiration of his contract to sign with Matchroom/DAZN once more in order to secure this fight.
In the context of what defines a competitor, Haney has made more headway in this department than Davis over the past couple of years, contradicting Stevenson’s claims surrounding Davis.
There is also the fact that there was never an attempt by Davis to face Stevenson, while Haney had already sent a contract offer to Stevenson to fight him this year, only for Stevenson to reject this opportunity because he felt he was worth more. More significantly, this fight would concern all of the lightweight titles which Haney was in possession of, which would enable Stevenson to become undisputed.
In comparison, Davis holds a lesser title of the WBA, the ‘regular’ title of which its ‘super’ version still belongs to Haney at the moment, and has yet to formally sent any sort of offer to fight Stevenson. While it is Stevenson’s assumption that a Davis fight would be easier to make, this does not discount the fact that Haney had already attempted to fight him and that Haney, as a free agent, has more room to arrange a fight with Stevenson who is currently signed to Top Rank.
A fight with Davis is actually more unrealistic as he is tied to the PBC which does not easily facilitate cross-promotional fights, as evident by Davis’ list of recent opponents which consists of mainly PBC fighters excepting Ryan Garcia.
Shakur Stevenson is currently preparing to face Edwin De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KO’s) on November 16th, next week Friday, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two fighters will be fighting for the WBC lightweight title that had recently been vacated by Devin Haney.
