Shakur Stevenson more interested in Oscar Valdez’s duel against Vasiliy Lomachenko: ‘We saw Lomachenko lose twice’

By: Hans Themistode

Shakur Stevenson enjoyed his time fighting under the promotional banner of Top Rated. However, despite his continued successes, both Stevenson and longtime promoter Bob Arum, are completely opposed when it comes to his immediate buddy future.

After a one-way victory over Jeremia Nakathila in mid-2021, Stevenson confidently enters his match with former WBO featherweight super champion Jamel Herring. Although the crowd at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, cheered loudly for the former sailor, Stevenson managed to dissect his man throughout the night.

As the penalty continued, referee Mark Nelson had seen enough, ending their fight in the 10th round. With the win, Stevenson claimed his second world championship in various weight classes.

During his next ring appearance, Arum floated the idea of ​​pairing Stevenson with former triple world champion and current weight star, Vasiliy Lomachenko. However, in Stevenson’s opinion, a confrontation against the Ukrainians, while appealing, was not on his mind.

Considering both men’s records, if the decision goes solely to the former Olympic silver medalist, he’d rather face off against WBC 130-pound champion Oscar Valdez.

“We watched Lomachenko lose twice in an interview with BoxingInsider.com,” said Stevenson. “He beat a lot of great boxers but do we see him lose twice? Did we do it right? How many times have we seen Valdez lose? We have never seen him lose before.”

Although Lomachenko currently sits high on most British lists, the former two-time Olympic gold medalist has suffered setbacks during his professional career.

Only in the second professional competition, Lomachenko managed to become the fastest boxer in history to win the world title. However, although he would return to focus in the second half, Lomachenko suffered a decisive goal against Orlando Salido.

For the next six years, Lomachenko was brimming with vitality and outperforming his opponents. As a result, he was crowned world champion in three separate weight classes. However, at the end of 2020, Lomachenko was suddenly dethroned by Teofimo Lopez. Since then, the southbound slicker has brought back-to-back wins over Masayoshi Nakatani and Richard Commey.

However, despite Lomachenko’s return to form, Stevenson believes Valdez played more impressively late in the game.

“Valdez had a great performance with [Miguel] Berchelt, take him down and Valdez has never been defeated. We met him [Vasiliy Lomachenko] entered the ring with Teofimo and he looked scared. ”

Valdez, 31, walked into the ring with Berchelt in the first quarter of 2021, trying to be a real player at 130 pounds. In his lone appearance as a featherweight superweight before his game against Berchelt, Valdez landed a pretty close unanimous decision against top laner Jayson Velez.

Even with most of the betting market and the boxing world taking him into account, Valdez was arguably the best performance of his career. The 31-year-old went on to beat Berchelt a total of three times before entering the knockout round of candidate of the year in the tenth to take Berchelt’s WBC crown. Recently, Valdez defended his newly won strap against Robson Conceicao.

If Arum succeeds in luring Lomachenko down to the 130-pound weight limit or convincing Stevenson to move 5 pounds north, the Hall of Fame promoter believes their duel will be box office gold.

While Stevenson has no objection to facing Lomachenko or anyone else on that matter, if he were given complete autonomy over his career, he’d rather take on Valdez.

“Valdez never lost, I never lost. I’m at the peak of my career, he’s at the peak of his career. Best versus best. ”