By: Sean Crose
He’s thought-about top-of-the-line fighters on this planet. Fast, onerous hitting, exceedingly assured within the ring, Shakur Stevenson has that sure one thing, onerous to outline however straightforward to see, that has marked him for doable greatness. Now the WBC has, as of Wednesday, ordered him to face off in opposition to Isaac Cruz in a world title eliminator. That means the winner will go on to face the defending WBC light-weight champion. At the second that opponent can be undisputed light-weight champ Devin Haney, although Haney is reportedly lined as much as struggle 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 struggle 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 downside with the WBC’s ruling on Wednesday is that Stevenson and Cruz struggle below completely different banners. Stevenson is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions. Cruz, alternatively is a member of Al Haymon’s Premiere Boxing Champions. Suffice to say, each organizations usually are not identified to have the warmest of relationships. Fans want solely look again to the limitless leadup to the 2015 Floyd Mayweather-Many Pacquiao struggle to understand how icy the state of affairs may be. With that in thoughts, it’s debatable Stevenson and Cruz might not be seeing one another within the ring any time quickly.
The fact is that the light-weight division now’s sizzling to the purpose of scalding. If solely the most important matches out there may get made. While it’s true Haney- Lomachenko will most certainly grow to be a actuality, the identical can’t be stated for a a lot anticipated battle between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia at this level. Couple that with the very actual risk that Stevenson and Cruz might not throw down and a snapshot of the up to date boxing scene turns into very clear and ugly. High finish fighters are on the market. High finish fights may be made. Is looks like most of the time, nonetheless, that they received’t be.
