{"id":471220,"date":"2026-02-13T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/471220\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:01:13","slug":"fighter-tipped-to-be-shakur-stevensons-toughest-test-guarantees-he-will-be-avoided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/471220\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighter tipped to be Shakur Stevenson&#8217;s toughest test &#8216;guarantees&#8217; he will be avoided"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The boxing world is raving about Shakur Stevenson after his most recent win, with many branding him unbeatable, but there is one fighter who believes he will be avoided by the Newark southpaw at all costs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/crle6nxz7nxo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stevenson dethroned Teofimo Lopez to claim the WBO super-lightweight world title<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>After being stripped of his WBC lightweight belt just days after, it remains unclear whether Stevenson will remain at 140 to defend his new strap or return to 135 without a title but with big fights still to make.<\/p>\n<p>With plenty of options on the table, two-division world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/bradley-on-who-competes-with-stevenson\/#:~:text=I&#039;m%20going%20to%20tell,as%20skill%20%5Bhe%20is%5D.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Bradley picked out WBC super-featherweight ruler O\u2019Shaquie Foster as the man who could provide Stevenson his toughest test<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to tell you all, you might disagree with me, but a fighter that can get with Shakur, I\u2019m not saying beat him, but can get with him on his level, his name is O\u2019Shaquie Foster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFoster as far as notoriety, he\u2019s not bigger than Teo, but as far as skill [he is]. O\u2019Shaquie should be on the pound-for-pound list. O\u2019Shaquie has a lot of what Shakur has with the distance, he got a fast jab too coming from the southpaw stance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last fighter that beat Shakur Stevenson [in the amateurs] was a southpaw. O\u2019Shaquie can switch to orthodox too, he\u2019s big too. He\u2019s got some size on him, some reach on him, got some pop on him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iIjRqpKOg_k?si=5i01_yn6yLa98fVM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On the \u2018Come and Talk 2 Me\u2019 podcast<\/a> \u2013 an interview which took place before Stevenson\u2019s WBC belt was declared vacant \u2013 Foster said that Stevenson will steer clear of the 135lb division due to the threat of him stepping up from 130lbs and becoming his mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he comes back to 135, I am going to make it happen, he isn\u2019t going to have no choice. But, I guarantee you this, he will stay far away from me. I guarantee you that he won\u2019t come back to 135.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what he is going to do, I promise you. Why do you think he is talking about Conor Benn and \u2018I just want big fights\u2019, so whoopty woo because he knows that if he comes back to 135 then I am going to press that button and become the mandatory and we are going to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Stevenson remains at 140lbs, it is expected that Cuba\u2019s WBC Interim lightweight champion Jadier Herrera will either be upgraded to full champion or fight for the vacant belt, with Foster being one possible candidate for the opposing corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boxing world is raving about Shakur Stevenson after his most recent win, with many branding him unbeatable,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-471220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}