WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring will be facing Shakur Stevenson on October 23rd in their WBO-ordered fight. The match will occur at the 21,000 seat State Farm Arena in Atlanta and be shown on ESPN/ESPN+.
ESPN’s Mike Coppinger is saying Herring (23-2, 11 KOs) and Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) have both signed their contracts on Thursday to make the fight a reality for two months from now in October. No purse bids are needed for the fight, thankfully.
That would have been a big letdown if Top Rank had to deal with another purse bid like the one they lost for the Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr fight.
Both Shakur, 24, and Herring will make a minimum of $1.5 million, which will be career-high paydays for them. Top Rank will be promoting the fight.
For Herring, 35, this will be the fourth title defense of his WBO belt that he captured with a 12 round unanimous decision win over Masayuki Ito three years ago in 2018.
Since picking up the WBO strap, Herring has beaten Carl Frampton, Lamont Roach, and Johnathan Oquendo. Herring’s recent sixth round knockout victory over Frampton was the best of the three last April.
In a rare instance in which Herring turned into a slugger, he dropped the 34-year-old Frampton twice en route to stopping him in the sixth round.
It’s going to be a tough battle for both Herring and Stevenson, as neither of them has fought steller opposition.
Stevenson has been matched with utter care by Top Rank, who hasn’t given him a glimpse of how tough the boxing world can be when matched against fighters like Emanuel Navarrete, Gary Russell Jr, Oscar Valdez, Gervonta Davis, and Robert Gutierrez.
Could Stevenson beat those types of fighters? Maybe some, but all of them would get their pound of flesh in a fight with Shakur. Those wouldn’t be easy matches for Stevenson like he’s been accustomed to since turning pro in 2017. Up to now, the best fighters Shakur has fought are these guys:
- Joet Gonzalez
- Christopher Diaz
- Jeremiah Nakathilia
Stevenson will likely be a heavy favorite to beat the 35-year-old Herring, but it’s not going to be an easy fight. Herring will test Stevenson’s chin, as Nakathilia did.
After Stevenson was nailed by some big shots from Nakathilia, he got on his bike and spent the second half of the fight running around the ring while some of the crowd booed. The victory for Stevenson over Nakathilia earned him the WBO mandatory position to challenge Herring.
Hopefully, this isn’t one of Stevenson’s more boring fights because he’s getting a reputation for being a dull fighter.
While his promoter Bob Arum isn’t saying anything yet about his less than crowd-pleasing style of fighting, you’ve got to imagine he’s not happy about it.
“I go fight Jamel Herring next and go beat him and then go beat Oscar Valdez. They’ll be saying I’m the best young fighter and put me on the pound-for-pound list,” said Stevenson to ESPN.
Well, they won’t put Stevenson on the pound-for-pound list if he wins ugly against Herring and Valdez as he did against Joet Gonzalez and Nakathilia.
Herring wants the unification fight with Oscar Valdez, but he’ll need to beat Stevenson for him to get it.