Shakur Stevenson was set to defend his WBC Lightweight World Title against Floyd Schofield in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this weekend before the challenger was forced to pull out due to illness.
Stevenson will remain on the card and it has now been confirmed by Fight Disciples that Yorkshire’s Josh Padley will fill the opposite corner. The 29-year-old is 15-0 with 4 KOs and it will be his second time on a Riyadh Season card following an impressive upset win over Mark Chamberlain.
The ten-round unanimous decision took place at Wembley Stadium on the undercard of Daniel Dubois’ emphatic title defence against Anthony Joshua. Chamberlain, whose fighting style saw him become an unlikely favourite of Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh, was heavily expected to win, but Padley boxed perfectly to his gameplan and even scored a knockdown of the bigger man in the eighth.
Stevenson will end a seven month lay-off during which he has had hand surgery to recover from a persistent injury. He won the vacant WBC belt against Edwin De Los Santos in November of 2023 and has made one defence against Artem Harutyunyan. A scheduled October bout against Joe Cordina was cancelled due to the injury.
Should Padley be unable to upset the odds for a second time in a row, and with an even steeper hill to climb against one of the best in the world, Stevenson will be expected to move ahead into a big fight.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes that William Zepeda – mandatory challenger but currently set for a rematch with Tevin Farmer in March – is avoiding Stevenson, and so will look to make a long-awaited unification with Gervonta Davis.
