Shakur Stevenson takes on Joet Gonzalez this Saturday

On October 26th, live from Reno, Nevada, undefeated featherweight star Shakur Stevenson will look to put the crowning achievement on his 126-pound pro run by capturing the WBO world featherweight title. Stevenson will battle Joet Gonzalez for the title but that is only step one in his featherweight plans.

After Stevenson wins the title he wants to remain at 126 for one more fight and that is a unification fight with England’s Josh Warrington.

The WBO featherweight strap became available when longtime champion Oscar Valdez, really torturing his body trying to remain at 126-pounds, decided it was time to move up to 130-pounds.

Stevenson, a very talented and tough 126-pounder has been fast tracked for a world title since turning pro after capturing silver at the 2016 Olympics. The Newark, New Jersey born southpaw has been on a torrid pace to the title banking 12 straight wins (7 KO’s) in two and-a-half years as a professional. The slick left-hander has shown the ability to both box and bang and should be the favorite going into the fight.

In California’s Gonzalez, Stevenson will be facing a fighter that has taken a somewhat slower pace to his title shot but he has also stayed undefeated and has been impressive in his 7 year run as a pro coming into the fight at a perfect 23-0 (14 KO’s). Gonzalez, who has stopped 8 of his last 10 opponents, made it clear in recent interviews that there is no love lost with Stevenson and he indeed plans to upset any and all post-Gonzalez plans for Stevenson.

Speaking at initial pressers with Top Rank’s Crystina Poncher, in response to why the fight was personal, Stevenson replied, “Because I don’t like him”, when asked why, he replied, “Because he’s a bitch”. He later spat out (interrupting Poncher) that he was gonna, “beat his ass”.

Gonzalez agreed after the Stevenson comments that it was indeed personal replying (to cheers from the crowd) that, “The kid has no class, disrespectful, no morals, and I’m coming. I’ll see him in the ring soon”, he said.

While Stevenson is excited and focused on capturing his first world title, he is also quite open about his plans at 126 and they don’t include a long stay if he isn’t unifying with Warrington in his next fight. Otherwise, he’s heading to 130-pounds where there may be some business with former champion Valdez or British star Carl Frampton. Both fighters, aligned with Stevenson’s promoter, Top Rank Boxing, are also now campaigning at the super featherweight limit. All in all, there are some great options for Stevenson if he can leave Reno with a world title in his suitcase.

And, in recent interviews, Stevenson was very clear what this post-Gonzalez plans would be.

“I wanna move up, but I wanna fight Josh Warrington,” Stevenson said. “I wanna unify. If I can unify with Josh Warrington, I’m gonna stay at 126 and we’re gonna fight. I’ll go to England if I’ve got to,” Stevenson said. “I don’t mind”, he said. “I heard that they don’t really wanna take the fight,” Stevenson said. “(Warrington promoter) Frank Warren said that Josh Warrington will ‘give me 12 rounds of hell’. So, after this fight, why don’t him and Bob – they close already. They might as well sit down and make the fight happen. That’s fine with me. I wanna fight Josh Warrington.”

If Stevenson beats Gonzalez on October 26, look for some featherweight unification action in early 2020 starring Stevenson and Warrington.