{"id":778818,"date":"2026-07-04T16:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778818\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T16:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:07:10","slug":"former-world-champion-calls-out-shakur-stevenson-after-stunning-ko-im-his-kryptonite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778818\/","title":{"rendered":"Former world champion calls out Shakur Stevenson after stunning KO: “I’m his kryptonite”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> has been called out for a clash under Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing banner as reports suggest he will soon confirm he is joining the new promotional outfit.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old\u2019s last outing saw him dethrone Teofimo Lopez in January, becoming a four-division world champion by unanimously outpointing his fellow American<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But despite claiming the WBO super-lightweight title, Stevenson has not ruled out a move back down to 135lbs, where he made three successful defences of his WBC strap.<\/p>\n

The crafty southpaw has also been heavily linked with a move to Zuffa, who do not currently recognise 140lbs as an official weight class.<\/p>\n

But, if Stevenson was to sign with the promotion, he could end up facing former world champion Jose Valenzuela, who made his Zuffa debut at 135lbs last weekend.<\/p>\n

This resulted in a second-round knockout over Edwin De Los Santos, who won their first encounter via a third-round stoppage in 2022.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Zuffa<\/a>, Valenzuela insisted that he has always wanted to face Stevenson, who could now be a more realistic target than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a fighter that I\u2019ve been wanting to fight since I was a young kid. Even when I was a world champion, I was like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ll fight him\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love that fight. That\u2019s the fight I want. I know my abilities and want to compete with the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a boxer first; I\u2019m a fighter first. Styles make fights. I believe I\u2019m his kryptonite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valenzuela claimed his WBA title by edging a split decision against Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz<\/a> in 2024, only for current super-lightweight champion Gary Antuanne Russell to dethrone him the following year.<\/p>\n

Having since dropped back down to lightweight, though, it seems that \u2018Rayo\u2019 could soon become a key component of the Zuffa stable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has been called out for a clash under Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing banner as reports suggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-778818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}