WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman has broken his silence on the decision to declare Shakur Stevenson\u2019s WBC Lightweight World title \u2018vacant\u2019 just days after his career-best victory over Teofimo Lopez.<\/p>\n
Stevenson moved up from lightweight \u2013 where he won the WBC belt back in November of 2023 \u2013 to super-lightweight to challenge Teofimo Lopez for his WBO title. Though looking comfortable at the weight and registering a career-best performance, it is understood that a drop back down to 135lbs was not off the table.<\/p>\n
However, just four days on from the victory, the WBC announced that Stevenson was no longer its champion at lightweight.<\/a> Speaking to Chris Mannix<\/a> about the controversial move, Sulaiman gave his side of the story.<\/p>\n \u201cWe received a call from [Stevenson\u2019s] management in which they requested the WBC to have Shakur Stevenson fight in a different weight category while maintaining the lightweight championship \u2026 They even asked for a special belt for the fight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe explained clearly that it is within the WBC rules, and that I would be very happy to convey that to the board and make it happen, because Shakur has been associated since 2019. I told his management they needed to send a written request in order to start all the process. From that point on, we had another couple of conversations. They were supposed to send a written request, which didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Sulaiman says he still put the request for the Lopez fight forward at the annual convention and it was voted in favour, but insisted to Stevenson\u2019s team that the WBC still required \u2018everything in writing.\u2019 He continued to request this, even involving Matchroom Boxing as the event\u2019s promoter, but ultimately \u2018never received anything in writing to be given final authorisation.\u2019<\/p>\n It is because of these circumstances he pushes back on the idea that Stevenson was \u2018stripped\u2019 of the belt \u2013 semantics that many will disagree with.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did not strip Shakur. [His] management elected not to comply and they eventually vacated the title because they did not comply. We have written proof of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n