{"id":887732,"date":"2026-09-11T04:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887732\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T04:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:46:11","slug":"shakur-stevenson-finally-responds-to-reports-of-fighting-legend-manny-pacquiao-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887732\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson finally responds to reports of fighting &#8216;legend&#8217; Manny Pacquiao next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shakur Stevenson has been asked directly about reports suggesting he is close to finalising a deal to face boxing\u2019s only eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/47794526\/stevenson-seizes-lopez-title-become-four-division-champion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stevenson was last in action back in January, moving up to super-lightweight and putting on a boxing clinic against Teofimo Lopez to become WBO super-lightweight world champion.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/stevenson-announces-new-promotional-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Since then, the Newark southpaw has signed a high-profile promotional deal with Zuffa Boxing<\/a>, becoming one of the biggest stars on its roster, and has been linked with the likes of Devin Haney, Raymond Muratalla and Gary Antuanne Russell.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, rumours and reports emerged that the 29-year-old four-division world champion was instead close to finalising a deal to face Pacquiao, who returned to the sport professionally last year when he fought to a draw with then WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios.<\/p>\n<p>Though the Filipino failed to break his own record as the oldest 147lbs champion in history that night, he has made it clear he will fight on.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=taWos3Nx3TA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ES News<\/a>, Stevenson pleaded ignorance but did not rule the fight out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch respect to the legend, Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see. Whatever happens, happens. I have no clue. But much respect to him. If it does happen, I would love to get in the ring and learn from a legend like Manny Pacquiao. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pacquiao\u2019s team say they will look to get him out once more in 2026 before attention turns back to the Floyd Mayweather rematch, previously booked for earlier this year but pushed back without a new date due to legal issues on the American\u2019s side.<\/p>\n<p>A fight with Stevenson in the interim will come as a shock to the fans who assumed \u2018PacMan\u2019 would be taking a light exhibition ahead of the money-spinning Mayweather 2 fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has been asked directly about reports suggesting he is close to finalising a deal to face&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-887732","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\/887732","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=887732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}