LAS VEGAS – If Shakur Stevenson beats Joet Gonzalez on October 26, he might not make a single defense of the WBO featherweight title.
There is only one fight, according to Stevenson, that’d keep him at the 126-pound limit if he wins the WBO belt later this month. If he defeats Gonzalez, he’ll move up to 130 pounds unless he can secure a title unification fight against IBF champion Josh Warrington.
“I wanna move up, but I wanna fight Josh Warrington,” Stevenson said recently. “I wanna unify. If I can unify with Josh Warrington, I’m gonna stay at 126 and we’re gonna fight.”
The 22-year-old Stevenson, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, would welcome a fight in Warrington’s native England, if that’s what it took to get a deal done. Warrington (29-0, 6 KOs) must first defeat France’s Sofiane Takoucht (35-3-1, 13 KOs) in an optional defense Saturday night in Leeds, Warrington’s hometown.
“I’ll go to England if I’ve got to,” Stevenson said. “I don’t mind. I wanna fight Josh Warrington.”
Stevenson wants Warrington because “he been talking a lot.” He thinks their fight should be relatively easy to put together because Stevenson’s promoter, Bob Arum, and Warrington’s promoter, Frank Warren, co-promote multiple fighters, including lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
“I heard that they don’t really wanna take the fight,” Stevenson said. “Frank Warren just put out a Tweet saying 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.”
The left-handed Stevenson wants Warrington to honor what the 28-year-old champion said about what Stevenson needs for their fight to happen.
“Warrington told me that if I win a world title, he’ll fight me,” Stevenson said. “So, I’m gonna have a world title and he won’t have no choice but to [fight me].”
The bout between Stevenson (12-0, 7 KOs), of Newark, New Jersey, and Gonzalez (23-0, 14 KOs), of Glendora, California, and the Warrington-Takoucht fight will be streamed live by ESPN+ in the United States. Stevenson, the WBO’s No. 1 contender, and Gonzalez, its No. 2 contender, will fight at Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada.
BT Sport will televise the Warrington-Takoucht card in the United Kingdom on Saturday (7:30 p.m. BST). The ESPN+ coverage of the Warrington-Takoucht show will start at 2:30 p.m. EDT/11:30 a.m. PDT.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.