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Unbeaten Olympic silver medal winner Shakur Stevenson is returning to the ring on Saturday night, when he faces Toka Kahn Clary at the MGM Grand’s Conference Center in Las Vegas.
Stevenson, who captured a world title at featherweight, is the WBO’s mandatory challenger at 130-pounds.
The current titleholder is Jamel Herring, and he defends his title against two division champion Carl Frampton in the first quarter of 2021.
The winner of Herring vs. Frampton will have to make a mandatory defense against Stevenson.
Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum is looking to match Stevenson against the winner of Herring-Frampton on a date in May.
While Stevenson would love to get a crack at Frampton, he doubts the Irish boxer will defeat Herring.
“His punk ass doesn’t want to fight me, that dude, I think he’s scared to fight me. If he comes through [against] Herring I’m going to f— him up. I don’t think he’ll fight me, I think even if he wins he was talking about retiring, I don’t think he really wants to fight me,” Stevenson told Marc Gatford of MyBettingSites.co.uk.
“I would love to come to the lions den in Belfast and beat-up on Frampton. I’d love to be the person to retire Frampton. Frampton has got the perfect style for me, the sit back and box, looking for hard, big punches – that sh-t won’t work. Over the course of the fight, I’ll stop him.
“I think Jamel will beat Frampton, I think Frampton is too small. I think Jamel will outbox him and use his reach and range against Frampton, I can’t see him finding a way to hit or reach Jamel. Herring is a really big 130-pounder.”
Another fighter who Stevenson could see himself facing in the future, is current IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington. He believes Warrington will eventually move up in weight to super featherweight.
“I haven’t forgotten about [Josh] Warrington, I don’t think he’ll be at 126 for too much longer. I think Warrington is a decent fighter, better than people give him credit for. He’s a pressure fighter but he’s made for me as a boxer,” Stevenson said.