By AJ Johnson
Shakur Stevenson recently let some of his frustrations out regarding Devin Haney. He has accused his fellow boxer of not only ducking him in the ring but also of cherry-picking his opponents. Both Stevenson and Haney have been linked to meet in the ring for a long time now, yet it’s never happened.
Haney has come out in the past and stated that he made an offer to Stevenson to fight. And that his offer was straight-up rejected. Stevenson later said that there wasn’t any offer that Haney made. It didn’t matter for long though, as Haney moved up to 140. When he moved, Stevenson stayed where he was in the 136 range, and his stock isn’t nearly as high as it once was.
Shakur Stevenson Is Still Looking For His Next Big Fight
There’s no question that Stevenson’s fight against Edwin De Lo Santos hurt his image and affected his future fights. He was able to win that matchup to win the WBC Lightweight title, though many fans booed him afterward because he played highly defensively. Shakur admitted that he was frustrated with his inability to land big fights after that, and later retired. It stayed that way until recently, as he’s supposedly preparing to fight Artem Harutyunyan on July 6th.
Shakur initially wanted to jump back into the ring against Haney, as he was planning on being a substitute for Ryan Garcia. The reason was that there had been concerns regarding Garcia’s mental health and would possibly need a substitute. That wasn’t going to happen, and Shakur was once again frustrated with his inability to meet Haney. He’s also said openly that he’d want to fight Garcia, but that he doesn’t want to face him coming off consecutive losses. He said, “The only thing I don’t like is if he loses this fight, he’ll be coming off of two losses. He got a win in between, but the fight he’s recognized for, he’s coming off a loss to Tank and then Devin.”
There’s no question that Stevenson wants Garcia, though he will be rooting for him to knock out Haney to boost how big of a fight it can be.