Shakur Stevenson finally has a deal for his next fight.
Per ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, who spoke to Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh, Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) will defend his WBC lightweight title against former IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina (17-1, 9 KO).
The fight will be the co-main event on the upcoming Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol card on Oct. 12.
“Stevenson’s talented and young and if he’s smart, we will do a lot of things with him,” Alalshikh told ESPN. “There’s a big fight with him in the future.”
According to Alalshikh, the plan is to make a fight between Stevenson and William Zepeda. That fight wasn’t made this time because Zepeda’s wife is due to have their baby soon, and the fighter is unavailable to prepare.
Alalshikh’s approach to making fights has become more assertive since the praise has begun to come in for his ability to make the best matches over the past two years.
The “if he’s smart” approach works with a fighter in Stevenson’s position but hasn’t been as successful when trying to make fights with the likes of Canelo Alvarez.
Stevenson is still looking for the kinds of paydays that represent generational wealth and validation as a superstar in the sport. He could not secure those things while working with Top Rank, and the dynamic 27-year-old is looking to Alalshikh to help push him to the next level.
Cordina is coming off an upset loss at the hands of Anthony Cacace in May on another Riyadh Season card. Now Cordina is moving up a weight class to fight one of the most skilled fighters in the sport.
Many may ask why this was chosen for Stevenson’s first fight with Alalshikh and the Golden Boy-Matchroom union with Riyadh Season.
It’s pretty simple.
Quite honestly, Stevenson will be a massive favorite to beat Cordina. With the latter moving up and coming off a TKO loss, there is a chance Stevenson gets the impressive fan-favorite performance that has been eluding him.
It’s a fight that likely represents a low-risk and potentially high reward for Stevenson moving into a more marquee matchup with Zepeda. For Cordina, he walks directly into another title opportunity after losing his belt in his last fight.
At 32 and coming off a crushing defeat, a fight with Stevenson is an excellent opportunity for the Cardiff, Wales product.
If he can produce a respectable performance or somehow find a way to pull off the upset, he’ll have rebounded spectacularly after his only professional loss.
Here is a look at the entire card that Alalshikh posted on his social media accounts:
With the Skye Nicholson-Raven Chapman, the exciting Ben Whittaker battling Liam Cameron, an exciting rematch between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke, and Chris Eubank vs. Kamil Szeremta to go with Beterbiev-Bivol and Stevenson-Cordina, Riyadh Season has put together another stellar boxing event.