{"id":740380,"date":"2026-08-17T02:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740380\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T02:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:26:08","slug":"shakur-stevenson-accused-of-potentially-ducking-unbeaten-champion-what-other-fight-is-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740380\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson accused of potentially &#8216;ducking&#8217; unbeaten champion: &#8220;What other fight is there?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shakur Stevenson has been urged to face a \u201cbigger and stronger\u201d version of William Zepeda, who arguably gave the slick southpaw his toughest fight in July 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Stevenson emerged with a unanimous decision victory but, sure enough, was made to work tremendously hard in each of their 12 rounds.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the unbeaten American moved up to 140lbs and became a four-division world champion, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/teofimo-lopez-vs-shakur-stevenson-live\/https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/teofimo-lopez-vs-shakur-stevenson-live\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dethroning Teofimo Lopez<\/a> with a near whitewash in January.<\/p>\n<p>But despite holding the WBO super-lightweight title, Stevenson has expressed an openness to face opponents in either his current division or back down at 135lbs.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, the 29-year-old is expected to make his Zuffa Boxing debut before long, having signed a multi-fight deal with Dana White\u2019s promotional outfit.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of potential opponents, top trainer Robert Garcia has suggested Raymond Muratalla, who defended his IBF lightweight title with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingscene.com\/articles\/raymond-muratalla-quashes-robson-conceicao-title-hopes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">unanimous decision victory over Robson Conceicao<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>With the 29-year-old now looking to campaign at 140lbs, though, Garcia has told <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IgXtV2GjEBQ?si=ccqKdfennaYCalPn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FightHype<\/a> that, besides Devin Haney, he believes his unbeaten charge represents the most obvious option for Stevenson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf [the Haney fight] doesn\u2019t happen, what other fight is there [for Stevenson]? I think Raymond is the perfect [opponent] \u2013 great [clash of] styles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Raymond is much bigger and much stronger than Zepeda. If Shakur gets the Haney fight, we can\u2019t argue. We can\u2019t say he\u2019s ducking [Muratalla].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if he\u2019s saying [the Muratalla fight] has to be at 135[lbs], then he\u2019s ducking a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While there has been loose talk of a clash between Stevenson and Haney, it would seem that the WBO welterweight champion is currently targeting a unification match with Liam Paro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has been urged to face a \u201cbigger and stronger\u201d version of William Zepeda, who arguably gave&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-740380","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\/740380","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=740380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}