Shakur Stevenson’s end to 2024 was disappointing as he was forced to the sidelines with a hand injury. He looks determined to make up for that this year.
The three-weight world champion made his lightweight debut in 2023 – a stoppage win over Shuichiro Yoshino – before facing Edwin De Los Santos for the vacant WBC belt and winning on points. After a successful defence against Artem Harutyunyan, Stevenson was then booked to face Joe Corinda but pulled out with the injury suffered in sparring.
He will return on the February 22 Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol card to face rising star Floyd Schofield Jr – though the challenger’s absence from the launch press conference has Shakur worried he may pull out.
Should it go ahead, 27-year-old defensive master Stevenson named the next two big names on his hit-list when speaking to Ariel Helwani.
“Three [fights in 2025] … Lomachenko and then Tank … Not very confident [about Lomachenko], I think he’s scared. I sparred him a while back and I think he’s been scared ever since … [Top Rank] would definitely get in the way of the fight, too. My hopes are very low for it, but with Turki, I think he can make a lot of things happen. [If not Lomachenko] William Zepeda is a good fighter, I’d love to beat him up too.”
Lomachenko is currently inactive, reportedly on the fence about retiring until the extent of a back injury is assessed. He holds the IBF belt and will be forced to defend it towards the end of the year or face being stripped.
‘Tank’ Davis, despite being six years the Ukrainian’s junior, has also been contemplating retirement and has vowed to hang up the gloves at the end of 2025. With a scheduled defence of his WBA belt on March 1 against Lamont Roach Jr and no documented interest in the Stevenson bout, that one also seems unlikely as things stand.
