Shakur Stevenson’s marketability and free agency have become the biggest stories in boxing over the past month.
The now-former Top Rank star is a free agent after his last fight, a unanimous decision win over Artem Harutyunyan. There have been a number of comments on Stevenson, his behavior following the fight, Top Rank and ESPN’s handling of the broadcast, and the fighter’s future.
Stevenson is being wooed by several promoters, but Bob Arum, the figurehead of his last promoter, doesn’t sound like someone aggressively attempting to keep the 27-year-old in the fold. Speaking with content creator Sean Zittel at the weigh-ins for the Janibek Alimkhanuly vs. Andrei Mikhailovich middleweight title bout, Arum addressed Stevenson’s claims that Top Rank was prioritizing Vasyl Lomachenko and protecting him from a fight with Stevenson.
According to Arum, Lomachenko prioritized a fight with Gervonta Davis over Stevenson. “What Shakur, God love him, forgets, while he is independent, and makes decisions that benefit him, he assumes that all other fighters are puppets,” Arum said.
“And therefore the promoter makes them do what the promoter wants, which is not the case, obviously. Because Loma is as independent, if not more so than Shakur. Tank Davis is independent as far as who he wants to fight. Shakur’s universe is that he’s independent as far to determine who he wants to fight and everybody else is a puppet and the promoters are the puppeteers. And that’s just not true. That’s just not realistic, but you can’t get it through Shakur’s head.”
When asked if Lomachenko might have said he wanted the Davis fight more than a scrap with Stevenson, Arum said: “The Davis fight is more money. It’s a bigger fight. Fighters are in this business to make money, and you can’t fault them for that.
Why take a fight that’s not going to earn them near as much as a fight that’s going to make them maybe double.”
Arum was also asked, from Stevenson’s perspective, why Top Rank wouldn’t try their best to make the fight with Lomachenko while the former was under contract. “Because Lomachenko has something to say about it,” Arum said. “Again, that’s the mentality where Top Rank and myself are the puppet masters and we can move these fighters around like puppets. No, the fighters wanna do what’s best for themselves, and that’s how it’s always been.”
You can see the entire interview below.
Arum may be downplaying some of the influence fighters have in their decisions on who to fight.
For years, Terence Crawford wanted to fight Errol Spence Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, but the dividing lines of dueling networks and promoters made that impossible. We ultimately got to see Crawford-Spence, but it took much longer than most preferred.
That’s proof it’s not entirely up to the fighters.
That said, a fight with Davis is almost certainly a bigger money scrap for Lomachenko. Considering his age (36), it makes sense for him to maximize his earning potential for his remaining fights. It isn’t as if fighting Davis is an easy task. Some would argue Davis represents the toughest fight in the weight region.
Others might lean toward Stevenson as the best fighter near the 135-pound mark. In any case, Stevenson seems set to land in a good spot with promoters from all over the boxing landscape vying to work with him.
Meanwhile, an exciting fight between Davis and Lomachenko feels even more likely before the end of the year.
