Shakur Stevenson is not going to step aside for Jamel Herring vs Oscar Valdez unification!
WBO junior lightweight mandatory challenger Shakur “Fearless” Stevenson (15-0, 8Ko) is not going to step aside for Jamel “Semper Fi” Herring’s request to unify the WBO and WBC titles against Oscar Valdez.
ON THE HUNT
Stevenson has been chasing that big career-defining fight for a long time. He tried to get a fight with Valdez back when he was the WBO featherweight champion. At that time, Fearless was the #1 contender for Valdez. Eventually, Valdez would vacate the title, move up to junior lightweight and wrestle the WBC title away from long-reigning champion Miguel Berchelt on February 20.
With Valdez dropping the WBO featherweight title, it allowed Stevenson to become the next champion after defeating Joet Gonzalez in October 2019. However, didn’t get the opportunity to win a title by defeating a champion which is what he has bee looking for. This led to him focusing his attention on then IBF champion Josh Warrington. Fearless finally got tired of Warrington “faking the funk” and decided to test the waters at the junior lightweight division.
PLAYING THE “WAITING GAME”
He was instantly placed in the mandatory spot by being a former champion in the previous division by WBO rules. Although, he had to wait for Herring to defend the title against two-divisional champion Carl Frampton before getting his championship fight with the winner.
The fight took longer to happen by being canceled twice due to an injury and a COVID-19 positive test. This prolonged Stevenson’s waiting period until both men were finally ready to square off in Dubai on April 3, 2021.
In the biggest fight of his career, Herring did not just beat Frampton, he beat him up before ending the punishment in the sixth round. Immediately the boxing community took to social media calling for a unification with Valdez. Additionally, Herring called for the fight as well in the post-fight interview and did not mention Stevenson at all!
Valdez’s manager Frank Espinoza is looking to move full steam ahead in making a lucrative unification. This prompted Fearless to tweet the famous line from the 1990 classic movie “House Party”.
In boxing, there is a famous phrase everyone loves to say, “unifications overtake mandatories.” Stevenson is not buying into that and stood his ground reminding team Valdez that nothing moves until they deal with him first.
3kingsboxing will continue to monitor this story as things seem to be getting hostile.
By: Garrisson Bland
