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Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KOs) will put his WBC 135-pound title on the line against No. 6 Artem Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) in a 12-round headliner July 6 on ESPN and ESPN+. at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Stevenson is coming under fire from boxing fans for fighting the 33-year-old.
Harutyunyan, considering this guy loses to Frank Martin.
Is Top Rank done with Shakur?
It looks bad on Stevenson's part, but it's probably the best he could get. Since Shakur's last fight, he's become someone that none of the popular fighters want to fight because they don't want to chase him around the ring while the crowd boos. Harutyunyan is probably the only guy Top Rank could find for Shakur.
Moreover, since this was Stevenson's last fight under his contract with Top Rank, it didn't make sense for them to match him against one of their talented fighters like Vasiliy Lomachenko, Keyshawn Davis or Emanuel Navarrete, given that he could have quit. the company will sign a contract with someone else.
It will be interesting to see if Top Rank will allow Shakur to leave after this without making a huge effort to re-sign him to a new contract. Look at it this way: They let two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux go when he was in their company, winning world titles, but was a defensive-oriented fighter and couldn't attract a big fan base.
If Top Rank were willing to let go of Rigondeaux, who was a far more talented and exciting fighter than Shakur, then there's a good chance they would wash their hands of Stevenson and consider him a lost cause and not worthy of re-signing.
This is an important fight for Shakur, who needs to impress if he wants a chance to fight in a unification bout this year. Another performance like his last could end up being a pariah that the top dogs will avoid forever.
The undercard could be the main event
On July 6, in a fight that could steal the show, WBC super lightweight champion O'Shaquie Foster will defend his belt against 2016 Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceicao.
Also on the card, 2020 U.S. Olympic champion Keyshawn Davis faces Miguel Madueno in a 10-round lightweight bout. WBC No. 3 Keyshawn, 24, continues his climb toward a possible title shot.
Keyshawn needs to up his game because he looked terrible against Nahir Albright, and he's the only talented fighter Top Rank has compared him to since signing him.
If Keyshawn is ever going to fight for a world title, he's going to have to up his game because he doesn't look capable of winning a title at 135 and his chances of winning the belt at 140 are slim to none.
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