Shakur Stevenson revealed on social media that he’s started training camp for his next defense of his WBC lightweight title.
Another Rebound Opponent for Stevenson?
Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) is staying quiet about who the challenger will be, but it’s believed to be former IBF super middleweight champion Joe Cordina. Promoter Eddie Hearn stated last week that negotiations had started for Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) to face Shakur next. Shakur is going to let Hearn announce the fight.
If it’s indeed Cordina that Shakur is defending against, it would be similar to his last fight against Artem Harutyunyan, where he faced a fighter coming off a loss. Frank Martin had beaten Harutyunyan in his previous fight before facing Shakur for his WBC title.
Strangely, Shakur is making a name for himself, fighting low-level fighters coming off losses, but this might be the best he can do. His performance against Edwin De Los Santos was so bad that it may have been permanently marginalized.
Cordina, 32, has moved up to 135 following losing his IBF title to Anthony Cacace by an eighth-round knockout on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The British fighter, Cordina, didn’t look good in that loss to Cacace, appearing slow and getting hit a lot.
Joe Cordina had struggled in his two prior fights against Shavkat Rakhimov and Edward Vazquez. He’d looked poor in both fights, so it’s unsurprising that Cacace dethroned him.
Speculations on the Fight Date and Card Placement
There’s speculation that Shakur vs. Cordina will be packaged with His Excellancy’s October 12th event, headlined by Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh. If Shakur is defending against Cordina next, it could wind up on the undercard.
It’s not a great fight, but it’s worthy of being on the undercard of Beterbiev-Bivol at the #2 or #3 spot, depending on who else is on the card.
Fans don’t understand why Shakur would defend against Cordina when the highly ranked #2 Raymond Muratalla, #4 Edwin De Los Santos, and #6 Andy Cruz await a chance to fight for a world title.
Due to their power and talent, those guys would be serious threats to Shakur. In contrast, Cordina is a safer bet for Shakur to keep him winning long enough to face William Zepeda in February.
Hearn promotes Cordina, and he might be the one who chose him for Shakur. If Hearn signs the free agent Shakur to his Mathroom Boxing stable, an in-house fight against Cordina will make a lot of sense. It makes British fans happy and helps Hearn give Cordina a quick title shot for a nice pick-me-up.
1st day of camp today 😈
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) August 19, 2024
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