Following his exceptional victory over Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson quickly announced that he wants to move up yet another weight class to face Conor Benn.
Stevenson forced himself into the number one pound-for-pound conversation over twelve, expert rounds against Lopez at super-lightweight, dominating ‘The Takeover’ with timing, countering and one of the best jabs in the business.
Whilst Stevenson sticking around at 140lbs is an exciting prospect for fans, he engaged in a face-off with Benn post-fight, fuelling an unlikely but already brewing rivalry. The newly crowned champion said:
“We can get it banging boy. I want that same rehydration clause you put on [Chris] Eubank Jr and I want the fight. My skills are too much. Sign the contract, let’s make it happen.”
Benn — who fought Eubank Jr twice at middleweight but has made it clear he will drop back down to welterweight for his next fight — was receptive to the challenge.
However, when Stevenson was informed at the press conference that Benn said no to a rehydration clause of 10lbs, he said that it was a dealbreaker.
“If he’s not gonna agree then we probably won’t fight. So he’s just wasting time. We’ll see. I’m a businessman at the end of the day. Like I said, he did a rehydration clause with Chris Eubank, Chris Eubank was in the ring half-dead. Why can’t he do the same thing?”
How talks progress remains to be seen. Benn, having become a big star in the UK with his rematch win over Eubank following defeat in the first, has also been linked with both Rolando Romero or the winner of Mario Barrio vs Ryan Garcia.
