If you’d had 20 guesses about who Shakur Stevenson would call out after his dominant win over Teofimo Lopez, you wouldn’t have come close.
Stevenson, the technical wizard from Newark, broke through to a higher plane of accomplishment on Saturday night with his performance at Madison Square Garden – a gentleman’s shutout of the reigning WBO junior-welterweight champion. With Stevenson in the upper stratosphere of boxing champions, any number of names in the lightweight and junior-welterweight divisions would make sense for his next challenge.
To the surprise of virtually all – save, perhaps, for the two boxers who were ready to cause a scene at center-ring – Stevenson called out Conor Benn, a fight that no one had been calling for and a curveball in real time.
“Where’s Conor Benn?” Stevenson asked during the post-fight interview with DAZN. “Hey, Conor Benn – we can get it bangin’, boy? I want that same rehydration clause that you put on [Chris] Eubank Jnr, and we can fight.”
On cue, Benn appeared in the ring, calling on the Saudi Arabian financier Turki Alalshikh to get the ball rolling.
“You’re too small for me, boy,” Benn shot back. “You’re tiny, bro. You can’t punch; you can’t keep me off you. I’ll fuck you up. I’ll put you down.”
Stevenson-Benn neither makes sense from a weight-class standpoint, nor from a competitive standpoint, either. Stevenson, a four-division champion who won his first title at featherweight, was fighting for the first time at 140lbs, while Benn has fought his most recent fights at middleweight against arch-rival Chris Eubank Jnr, and primarily has been a welterweight since turning pro a decade ago. Though Benn sports a respectable 24-1 (14 KOs) record, his biggest credential to date is avenging his prior decision loss to Eubank, a fringe super-middleweight contender.
Where it does make sense is at the box office.
Benn, though relatively unknown Stateside, is a massive draw in the United Kingdom, where his two fights with Eubank Jnr drew over 60,000 fans to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England and was a similar success on pay-per-view. Though a Stevenson-Benn fight doesn’t have the same marketing edge of a decades long, multi-generational family feud, it would still pit the son of a beloved former champion against his biggest test to date.
Stevenson has spoken in the past of his desire to fight in the United Kingdom, where he feels his technical, cerebral approach to the sport will be more appreciated than in the United States, where a premium is put on knockouts and aggression. “I think they appreciate boxing,” Stevenson said in 2024. “I like the fact that the England people appreciate boxing a lot. They support their people and they even support the people that’s not their people.”
It isn’t as if there is a surplus of attractive options around for Stevenson, who still holds the WBC lightweight title and has suggested he may return to 135lbs. At lightweight, Gervonta “Tank” Davis has been the biggest star in recent years, but hasn’t fought in nearly a year since his draw with Lamont Roach Jnr and has a handful of legal issues. Keyshawn Davis, who looked sensational earlier in the night with his knockout of Jamaine Ortiz, is a close friend of Stevenson’s whom he likely wouldn’t fight. Devin Haney is a fighter Stevenson has been linked to failed negotiations with, and after moving up to welterweight to lift the WBO title it isn’t likely that Haney would want to go through the hell of making weight at a lower division again.
The most interesting fights for Stevenson would be at 135lbs, where the unbeaten titleholders Raymond Muratalla and Abdullah Mason would both provide different challenges stylistically. Both of their stocks are on the rise after their most recent victories, but they are still coming into their own as major attractions.
It’s also not like Benn doesn’t have options, as he’s the number-one contender for the WBC welterweight belt – despite not having fought at 147lbs in four years – and could wait out his own shot at the winner of Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia.
Stevenson, however, could use a fight with Benn as an opportunity to continue building his profile on the world stage. After easily outpointing a respected champion at junior welterweight, Stevenson couldn’t be blamed much for taking an easier, high-paying opportunity. As for what weight they would fight at, if they were able to figure it out for Eubank Jnr, they’d be able to do the same for him.
Immediately after the Stevenson-Benn confrontation, this writer went viral for tweeting that beating Lopez and then calling out Benn was like beating the Yankees and then calling out the Rockies. Having slept on it, this writer remembers how the Yankees, after defeating their cross-town rival Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1955 World Series, made trips abroad to play teams in the Philippines and Japan as part of a barnstorming tour – it’s hard to fault a champion for taking a payday after making a big statement.
Hopefully, after Benn, the path towards proving his greatness once more becomes clearer.
In boxing, the only things tangible are the punches and the money. If you can take fewer of the former while making more of the latter, you’re doing pretty good for yourself.
