Shakur Stevenson Ready To Go To England, calls out Selby and Warrington

Super-talented featherweight Shakur Stevenson, an Olympic silver medal winner at bantamweight in 2016, made quite the impressive statement on Saturday night’s card in Nebraska that was headlined by Terence Crawford against Jose Benavidez. The 21 year old southpaw despatched the usually sturdy Viorel Simion inside one explosive round, scoring three knockdowns to get the win. Now 9-0(5) as a professional, Stevenson has many fans and experts excited.

Having crushed the experienced 36 year old Romanian in style when top British names Scott Quigg and Lee Selby had to go the distance to defeat Simion, Stevenson wasted no time calling for bigger tests. Speaking in the ring after his impressive short night’s work, the red-hot prospect/contender from Newark, New Jersey called out both Selby and Josh Warrington.

“You can give me Lee Selby next,” Stevenson said. “I feel I’ve been calling Lee Selby out since forever. I’ll go to England to fight Lee Selby and after I fight Lee Selby I’ll fight Josh Warrington too.”

Warrington, the reigning and unbeaten IBF featherweight champion, has of course got his big December 22 fight with Carl Frampton to concentrate on, but in a potentially big fight for the coming months, maybe Warrington will indeed cross paths with the American star in the making – if Warrington, 27-0(6) beats Frampton, of course. As for Selby, 26-2(9), he was last seen losing his IBF belt to Warrington back in May of this year and his next move has yet to be officially confirmed. Maybe the talented 31 year old from Barry in Wales will take Stevenson up on his offer and maybe this fight could happen on the under-card of a Frank Warren show.

For UK fans, the idea of this gifted and extremely exiting young fighter boxing on these shores is a most welcome one. Can Stevenson defeat established names like Selby and then Warrington? After the quick job Stevenson did on the previously unstopped Simion, don’t bet against it. Exciting times indeed for the featherweight division.