By: Hans Themistode
Even after winning the WBO featherweight superweight title, Shakur Stevenson was eager for another gold.
The former 2016 Olympic silver medalist, after a one-sided win over Jamel Herring, has called for a unified showdown with WBC belt holder Oscar Valdez. Although Stevenson’s number one target is Valdez, he’s currently moving away from his Mexican descent to take on someone else in his 130-pound weight class.
“I want to fight Chris Colbert in 2022,” Stevenson said on his social media account.
Colbert, 25, may just be in the infancy of his career, but the Brooklyn, New York native has earned a reputation for being sloppy, pompous and full of arrogance.
Before Colbert turned his attention to his match against Stevenson, he was intent on winning his first world championship. In January 2020, Colbert easily overcame Jezzrel Corrales to win the WBA interim lightweight title. Colbert would eventually go on to defend his crown on two separate occasions. Most recently, he let Tugstsogt Nyambayar beat Tugstsogt in July earlier this year.
Since then, Colbert has seen his interim title reign come to an abrupt end, thanks to the WBA sanctioning body’s efforts to end the proliferation of world titles in all weight classes. As a result, Colbert was moved from the interim title to a mandatory challenger for the full WBA president, Roger Gutierrez.
In Stevenson’s mind, he was fairly confident that Colbert would run the business against Gutierrez. As the New York native began his own title reign at 130 pounds, Stevenson urged Colbert to go head-to-head with him in his first defense of his crown.
“Tell him to agree with me after he defeats that parasite.”
With both fighters still relatively early in their careers, at one point Colbert was ready to admit that the Stevenson bout was one he believes could be a super fight one day. someday. However, with Stevenson wanting to give him up sooner rather than later, Colbert doesn’t seem to have a problem with appeasing his wishes.
“Shakur Stevenson is an honest guy and he acts like he is,” Colbert said in response to Stevenson. “He knows my body but let’s make it happen, 2022.”
