Shakur Stevenson’s unwanted “stay busy” fight!
On Saturday March 14, “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 KO’s) will make the first defense of his newly acquired WBO world featherweight title against Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga (29-3, 25 KO’s) at the infamous Madison Square Garden.
Although the bout allows him to remain busy and to fight at the iconic venue, this is simply not Fearless’ fight of choice.
If given his way, instead of Marriaga, Stevenson would be locking horns with IBF world featherweight champion Josh “The Leeds Warrior” Warrington (30-0, 7 KO’s). It’s no secret that he has been calling Warrington out since well before he beat Joet Gonzalez (23-1, 14 KO’s) to claim the then-vacant WBO title.
WHERE’S WARRINGTON?
In fact, acquiring a belt was one of Warrington’s stipulations before he would give serious consideration to a showdown with Stevenson. That’s why it’s little wonder that once Stevenson took possession of the belt, he near immediately resumed calling out the Leeds Warrior.
Despite having the featherweight title, the fight against Warrington remained elusive. To team Warrington’s credit, they were willing to negotiate a unification bout. However, the time frame was too far down the line for Stevenson’s liking.
As a young fighter and new champion, one of Fearless’s main objectives is to remain busy. This is exactly why he took the match with Marriaga. By accepting the stay busy dust-up, he feels that he will be able to stay sharp and in tip-top shape, as he explained in an exclusive interview with ThaBoxingVoice.
“Yeah, I am a little upset because I kind of wanted to be unified in 14 fights. I wanted to win my title and come right back and unify, but it wasn’t an option.
“Especially being that they [Team Warrington] want to fight in May and take a long time. I don’t know, this whole thing with them was kind of weird.”
3kingsboxing will continue to report all the latest developments in this would-be intriguing match-up.
By: Bakari Simpson
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