{"id":802245,"date":"2026-07-15T17:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802245\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:27:09","slug":"world-champion-says-shakur-stevenson-has-gone-back-on-his-word-after-initially-agreeing-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802245\/","title":{"rendered":"World champion says Shakur Stevenson has ‘gone back on his word’ after initially agreeing to fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> is now searching for a first opponent after signing with Zuffa Boxing, but there is one man who says he is being avoided by Stevenson, whom he believes has \u2018gone back on his word\u2019.<\/p>\n

Stevenson has been linked to a host of names since his triumph over Teofimo Lopez in January<\/a>, with Devin Haney<\/a>, Conor Benn<\/a> and Jose \u2018Rayo\u2019 Valenzuela being some of the recent fighters mentioned for a showdown<\/a> with the pound-for-pound star.<\/p>\n

Another man who has been chasing the fight is former sparring partner and reigning WBC super-featherweight world champion O\u2019Shaquie Foster, who has maintained that he would be willing to move up two weight divisions for the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Back in December, Stevenson responded to Foster\u2019s continuous call-out, telling the Texan that he must first defeat his good friend and former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford before being granted the opportunity to fight him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all good Sav [Ford], Cause he won\u2019t get an opportunity with me until he fight u.. That WBC s**t don\u2019t move me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Foster has overcome Ford via majority-decision, with Stevenson entering the ring after that May contest to seemingly call on the showdown with \u2018Shock\u2019 Foster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPick up the phone we could run it next\u2026 Don\u2019t say he a 130 pounder either he talked his way here now let\u2019s go. Boy gone wanna shake my hand after saying he ain\u2019t shaking hands, let\u2019s fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook they starting already. This dude scream my name on every platform.. Lie and say he beat me up and ran me out the gym when I never run from nobody, I\u2019m a man first. Let\u2019s get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, speaking to Ring Magazine<\/a>, Foster shared his frustration at a lack of talks in the weeks that have followed, disheartened that he will not be granted a shot at the Newark southpaw despite trumping Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went on Twitter [X] and said that basically he is not giving me an opportunity or giving me a shot at fighting him unless I give Ray Ford the shot [first].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did that and he\u2019s not holding himself to or being a man of his word. We ain\u2019t heard nothing from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got in the ring that night and said, \u2018we are going to do it\u2019. I told him that I don\u2019t care which weight and, still, we ain\u2019t heard nothing from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foster is also being mooted for a unification clash against WBO and IBF super-featherweight world champion Emanuel Navarrete, although WBO mandatory challenger Charly Suarez is unlikely to step aside and looks set to delay that proposed match-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson is now searching for a first opponent after signing with Zuffa Boxing, but there is one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-802245","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\/802245","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=802245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}