{"id":689640,"date":"2026-07-13T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689640\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:18:08","slug":"shakur-stevenson-rules-out-facing-one-man-next-after-signing-with-zuffa-im-turning-the-fight-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689640\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson rules out facing one man next after signing with Zuffa: &#8220;I&#8217;m turning the fight down&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After reports quickly became common knowledge, Shakur Stevenson has finally signed with Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing. While the news was expected to be followed by a fight announcement, the Newark southpaw has instead ruled out one of his rumoured rivals.<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson is unanimously considered as one of boxing\u2019s pound-for-pound superstars, with his undefeated record remaining intact despite him becoming the third-youngest four-division world champion of all time.<\/p>\n<p>Now, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/shakur-stevenson-went-missing-on-devin-haney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stevenson is seeking opportunities to take on his pound-for-pound rivals, with a clash against Devin Haney<\/a> being suggested throughout 2026 thus far, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/stevenson-announces-new-promotional-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">until a move to Zuffa Boxing<\/a> led to concerns that he may pursue an alternative fight.<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson was also being mentioned for a fight with another Zuffa fighter, former WBA super-lightweight world champion, Jose \u2018Rayo\u2019 Valenzuela. Yet, in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/49316811\/shakur-stevenson-signs-zuffa-boxing-upcoming-fights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ESPN<\/a>, Stevenson made it clear that he would not be facing the Renton-based lefty any time soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m turning the fight down publicly right now just in case that they do come to the table and say, \u2018Oh, we want to fight Rayo.\u2019 Shakur will not be fighting Rayo. That will not be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Stevenson maintained that he fully intends to take on boxing\u2019s biggest names and that he will not be restricted to in-house Zuffa fights, calling for a clash with either Haney or <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/gervonta-davis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gervonta Davis<\/a> next.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully my next fight is with Devin Haney since Conor Benn isn\u2019t here or, hopefully, it\u2019s Gervonta Davis. I haven\u2019t been calling his name lately, but now is the time to fight, so let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite Stevenson\u2019s words, Haney<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/boxing\/article\/devin-haney-ordered-to-defend-wbo-welterweight-title-against-keyshawn-davis-205453626.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> seems more likely to face mandatory challenger, Keyshawn Davis, in a defence of his WBO welterweight world title<\/a>, whilst \u2018Tank\u2019 Davis is expected to be sidelined until early 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After reports quickly became common knowledge, Shakur Stevenson has finally signed with Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing. While the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689640","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\/689640","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=689640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}