Cris Esqueda / Matchroom BoxingShakur Stevenson’s former promoter Eddie Hearn told reporters Monday the unbeaten four-division champion is headed to Zuffa Boxing.
While the union is not official, two individuals familiar with the talks indicated it’s on course with an announcement imminent.
Stevenson, a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist from Newark, New Jersey, gives Zuffa Boxing its most decorated champion yet, a 28-year-old left-hander who’s won world titles from featherweight to super-lightweight.
In January, he convincingly out-pointed former two-division champion Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden to improve to 25-0 with 11 knockouts.
Recently, Stevenson was jawing with WBC super-featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster following Foster’s successful title defense versus Stevenson friend Raymond Ford Saturday night in Houston.
Stevenson has also been linked to welterweight fights against champions Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia.
Zuffa Boxing’s Dana White hinted at the most recent Zuffa Boxing event that signing Stevenson and Haney was possible.
“I just don’t know who they’re going to put him in with,” Hearn said on FightHubTV while appearing at his fighter Anthony Joshua’s news conference. “Zuffa are paying these guys five times more than anybody else is paying. Are you going to put Shakur in against O’Shaquie Foster and give him $15 million? Good luck to Shakur, but it’s a weird model, and it’s a model that’s not going to last very long.”
Similar sentiments were connected to Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing when it started its reach into the U.S. market with DAZN in late 2017, and earlier with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions when it formed.
Zuffa has a lucrative streaming deal with Paramount+ and is connected to the powerful parent company TKO Group Holdings that includes White’s UFC and WWE, headed by Zuffa Boxing’s Nick Khan.
The promotion has its own cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia, recent IBF 140lbs champion Richardson Hitchins, WBC top-ranked welterweight Conor Benn and former super-middleweight title contender Edgar Berlanga in its stable while backed by Saudi Arabia financier Turki Alalshikh.
Representatives of Stevenson and Zuffa Boxing either failed to immediately return calls or declined comment on Hearn’s statement.
![Eddie Hearn [right] chats to Jason Statham at rignside in Egypt on May 23, 2026](https://photo.boxingscene.com/uploads/JasonStathamEddieHearn.webp)
