Shakur Stevenson recently beat Teofimo Lopez to capture the WBO super lightweight world title, and the sanctioning body has installed a new No.1 contender but there’s already one glaring issue.

They won’t ever fight even if it would make for an epic contest.

Stevenson climbed to the upper echelon of the pound-for-pound rankings as his Lopez win secured four-weight world champion status, adding Teo’s name to Jamel Herring, Oscar Valdez, and William Zepeda as elite wins.

But the performance wasn’t the only headline generated as, shortly after, the WBC stripped Stevenson of his title at lightweight over an apparent failure to pay $100,000 in sanctioning fees, even though the WBC did not sanction the Lopez fight. The WBO did.

Now, the WBO has installed an extraordinary fighter as Stevenson’s No.1 contender at 140 pounds. It’s someone who would test Stevenson and create for a climactic fight. But, considering what Stevenson and this fighter have said about one another through the years, they’ll only refuse to actually box.

The WBO’s No.1 contender, Keyshawn Davis, has spoken before about why he’d never fight Stevenson.

“Shakur, I genuinely have real love for you.”

Speaking to Ring Magazine, Davis said: “When I was going through a deep depression … talking to Shakur about how I was thinking, feeling, and he was giving advice that I really have taken. He pulling up on me, making sure I’m straight. He was there for my worse times, and I’ll never forget that.”

It’s a feeling shared by Stevenson, who told Fight Hype last year: “I already told y’all, there’s only one person I wouldn’t fight, but I’m down with fighting anybody so I wouldn’t mind getting in some s**t like that if it make sense.

“But if it’s me and Keyshawn in there I wouldn’t wanna do that s**t.”

Here is WBO’s top-15 rankings at 140, outside of Shakur, who is the champion:

Keyshawn Davis

Teofimo Lopez

Alfredo Santiago

Lindolfo Delgado

Alberto Puello

Arbold Barboza Jr.

Emiliano Vargas

Ernesto Mercado

Adam Azin

Hendri Cedeno

Jack Rafferty

Arthur Biyarslanov

Yaser Al Ghena

Kuntae Lee

Faisal Abubakari

Considering the list, it’s perhaps evidence that Stevenson’s best fights are outside the WBO’s rankings. A bout against the British boxer Conor Benn could be one of the more lucrative options, but he, too, could take on the likes of Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia or Mario Barrios, or Isaac Cruz.

If he were able to drop back to lightweight, he could also consider turning the pressure up on Naoya Inoue, who has yet to fully ingratiate himself to the American public, with only around 8,000 people combining to generate a $4 million gate for when the Japanese knockout puncher held a Cinco de Mayo event against Ramon Cardenas.

Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis would always have been an ideal opponent for Inoue to fight, to maximize attention State-side. But with Davis out of the picture due to civil issues, Stevenson could leap-frog him in those sweepstakes, just like he leapfrogged Tank as a face for American boxing, too.