With four champions in the lightweight division – Shakur Stevenson, Gervonta Davis, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Denys Berinchyk – fans want to see unification fights.
All of the above benefitted from Devin Haney vacating his titles and moving up to super-lightweight. Lomachenko – who lost a razor-thin decision to Haney for all four belts – beat George Kambosos Jr for the vacant IBF.
Stevenson took on and defeated Edwin De Los Santos to win the WBC, Berinchyk bested Emanuel Navarrete to get the WBO and Davis was automatically elevated from Regular to Full Champion with the WBA. He would then cement that status with an emphatic knockout of Frank Martin as his first defence.
Stevenson was latest out, keeping his title by beating Artem Harutyunyan over the distance.He wants ‘Tank’ Davis or Lomachenko but looks set to miss out when they face each other, negotiations for which are accelerating.
In an interview with Cigar Talk, the 27-year-old said he would give William Zepeda a shot in the meantime.
“Where is William Zepeda? Where is he? We gonna keep hyping him up cause he’s fighting these guys he’s stopping in three, four rounds cause he’s throwing volume? These dudes ain’t in the shape that I be in. Come on, bro.
If Tank gonna go fight Lomachenko why can’t I go fight the harder, maybe the harder fight, we don’t know. Maybe the harder fight just because of William Zepeda’s volume and how much punches he throw. Where is he at though?
I think they’re banking on another fight where they can win a belt. Berinchyk. They don’t want this belt.”
Zepeda, promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy, is 31-0 with 27 KOs and in the unique position of being number one with all four sanctioning bodies. He fought on the same weekend as Shakur, stopping Giovanni Cabrera in three.
