{"id":612813,"date":"2026-05-30T23:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612813\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:38:08","slug":"shakur-stevenson-called-out-for-the-best-fight-in-the-division-hell-want-his-belt-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612813\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson called out for ‘the best fight in the division’: “He’ll want his belt back”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson has been called out for a potential opportunity at 135lbs, offering him the chance to reclaim his WBC world title.<\/p>\n

The American was stripped of his lightweight belt<\/a> earlier this year, shortly after producing a 12-round masterclass against Teofimo Lopez in January.<\/p>\n

This was his first outing at 140lbs, yet size played no factor as Stevenson unanimously outpointed and dethroned Lopez for the WBO title, becoming a four-division world champion.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, an attempt was made to keep hold of his lightweight belt, only for the WBC to strip him after having not received a formal request in writing.<\/p>\n

Should he wish to go over old ground, then the 28-year-old could look to reclaim his title, but only if Lamont Roach emerges victorious against William Zepeda.<\/p>\n

The pair are set to square off for Stevenson\u2019s old WBC title on August 1<\/a>, with Roach representing a fresh opponent for the elite technician.<\/p>\n

Zepeda, on the other hand, lost a clear unanimous decision to Stevenson in July, and is therefore unlikely to warrant a rematch any time soon.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the unbeaten southpaw would be interested in facing Roach, though, with \u2018The Reaper\u2019 telling FightHype<\/a> that he would certainly be up for the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I win the [WBC] championship, I know he\u2019ll probably want to reclaim it. We\u2019ll see. I think that\u2019s the best fight in the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that [fight] would define who\u2019s the best at 135[lbs]\u201d<\/p>\n

Roach comes off back-to-back draws with Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz and Gervonta Davis in 2025, with his last win coming via an eight-round stoppage of Feargal McCrory in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has been called out for a potential opportunity at 135lbs, offering him the chance to reclaim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-612813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}