Gervonta Davis against Shakur Stevenson is one of the fights in and around the lightweight division that fans have been calling for.
With extreme talent at 135 and 140 – Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Vasily Lomachenko and more – not enough top fights have been made. The three mentioned above have stepped up and faced one another in recent years but, other than his Ryan Garcia victory, Davis hasn’t been matched up with enough of the upper echelon.
Stevenson, despite chasing the Lomachenko fight, is in the same boat. The slick technician is a three-weight world champion at just 26-years-old, but is calling out for a marquee main event against a star like ‘Tank.’
Should the fight be made, it’s no surprise that Stevenson’s friend and training partner Terence Crawford – himself coming off the back of a long-awaited super-fight against Errol Spence – backs him to win. He told SHOWTIME as much.
“Shakur. Hands down.”
“One thing I can say about Tank is he’s smart, he can box, and he’s explosive. I see that being Shakur’s toughest fight, because of the power. Everybody know Tank punchin’.”
Despite ‘Tank’ announcing that Shakur is on his hit list in the next seven fights, fans want less talk and more action. Should the fight be made now it would be a lightweight unification, adding belts to the already perfectly intriguing affair.
Promotional conflict may have stood in the way in the past, but Stevenson currently has one fight left with Top Rank and may move into free agency thereafter to make a fight with PBC’s Davis easier to negotiate.
First up each man has a defense. Davis puts his WBA belt on the line against fellow southpaw Frank Martin on June 15. Stevenson follows with the WBC on July 6 against previous Martin opponent Artem Harutyunyan.
