By: Sean Crose
He’s thought-about among the best fighters on this planet. Quick, laborious hitting, exceedingly assured within the ring, Shakur Stevenson has that sure one thing, laborious to outline however simple to see, that has marked him for attainable greatness. Now the WBC has, as of Wednesday, ordered him to face off towards Isaac Cruz in a world title eliminator. Meaning the winner will go on to face the defending WBC light-weight champion. In the mean time that opponent can be undisputed light-weight champ Devin Haney, although Haney is reportedly lined as much as combat Vasyl Lomachenko.
The reasoning right here goes that the winner of Haney-Lomachenko will tackle the winner of Stevenson-Cruz, supplied nobody leaves the division throughout that point. The 19-0 Stevenson’s final combat was a UD win over Robson Conceicao in September. The 24-2-1 Cruz final noticed motion that very same month when he knocked out Eduardo Ramirez in 2.
The issue with the WBC’s ruling on Wednesday is that Stevenson and Cruz combat underneath totally different banners. Stevenson is promoted by Bob Arum’s Prime Rank Promotions. Cruz, then again is a member of Al Haymon’s Premiere Boxing Champions. Suffice to say, each organizations aren’t recognized to have the warmest of relationships. Followers want solely look again to the infinite leadup to the 2015 Floyd Mayweather-Many Pacquiao combat to understand how icy the state of affairs may be. With that in thoughts, it’s debatable Stevenson and Cruz is probably not seeing one another within the ring any time quickly.
The reality is that the light-weight division now could be scorching to the purpose of scalding. If solely the main matches out there might get made. Whereas it’s true Haney- Lomachenko will more than likely grow to be a actuality, the identical can’t be mentioned for a a lot anticipated battle between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia at this level. Couple that with the very actual chance that Stevenson and Cruz might not throw down and a snapshot of the modern boxing scene turns into very clear and ugly. Excessive finish fighters are on the market. Excessive finish fights may be made. Is looks like most of the time, nevertheless, that they received’t be.
