Fans were recently disappointed when Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis didn’t make a fight happen despite both being in the market for an opponent.
The lightweight world champions – Stevenson the WBC, Davis the WBA – both defended their belts in the same timeframe, with ‘Tank’ knocking out Frank Martin in June and Shakur comfortably outpointing Artem Harutyunyan three weeks later.
IBF Champion Vasiliy Lomachenko pulling out of negotiations with Davis coincided with Stevenson’s promotional contract ending and him becoming a free agent. There were, from the outside, no obstacles to the fight fans want to see. Despite that, it didn’t happen and some online have claimed Stevenson ducked the challenge because ‘Tank’s team said they wanted to make it happen.
In an interview with Cigar Talk, Stevenson hit back at those claims.
“Explain it, how can you say I ducked him? What does that have to do with me if they reached out to me, and we reached back and said ‘yeah, come on’ – how could you say I ducked that person?”
Asked if he was met with radio silence when he responded to Davis’ team reaching out, he said yes.
“Yeah. As far as I know, yeah … I never got one offer, I never got no offer or nothing. That’s cap. That’s what people make it seem like, but I’m speaking the truth. Let’s speak the facts.”
Davis is slated for a fight in late November or December of this year but is yet to secure an opponent.
