Shakur Stevenson recently announced that next year he will be a promotional free agent after his contract with Top Rank concludes. Stevenson, who is a two-division world champion aiming to become a three-division world champion on November 16th has let the world know, that when his contract is up with Top Rank he will explore every option.
In a recent interview with Cigar Talk, Stevenson stated the following.
“I’m considering every option possible," said Stevenson when speaking to Cigar Talk. “Top Rank [has been] good to me, but once my contract [is] up, I will be a free agent, and I’m willing to talk to anybody that wants to do great business.”
Stevenson has recently expressed frustration as he has looked to land a fight with Devin Haney that was unsuccessful as well as a fight with my other big name fighters in the division like Gervonta Davis.
Given the amount of wealth fighters like Ryan Garcia received for one fight in which Garcia is reported to have made $30 million dollars when facing Gervonta Davis. Stevenson let it be known that money is not his sole focus when it comes to his next contract. Stevenson is looking to be a legend and that is his focus.
“Right now, I’m hungry, like I’m starving, and I’m not talking about money," said Stevenson "This doesn’t have one thing to do with money. I don’t give a [expletive] about that at this point in my career."
This does conflict with a prior statement as an undisputed lightweight bout was allegedly offered, but Stevenson wanted more than the 25% split that was offered. Stevenson expressed a desire to engage in significant fights that would propel him to the top and solidify his place in boxing history, as having trained beside Terence Crawford for Crawford's biggest win of his career against Errol Spence Jr. It is quite clear Stevenson wants to go down as one of the greats of his era, and a subplot to that is the path.
Stevenson is currently one year or so away from being out of his contract with Top Rank and being one of the biggest names in the sport that is available to the open market. This next fight as well as his remaining bouts will be interesting to see how it plays out for Stevenson's career in the long run.
“This is more so the love of the sport of boxing that’s driving me and making me want to be one of the greatest,” said Stevenson. “I want to be one of the greatest boxers ever to do it and put my name in the history books like Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward, Pernell Whitaker, and Terence Crawford."
