The WBC has ordered Shakur (20-0, 10 KOs) and Frank Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) to meet for the vacant WBC lightweight title that Devin Haney will be giving up when he moves to 140 to face WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis.
If Shakur & Martin can’t reach a deal, a purse bid will take place on September 5th. If Top Rank wins the purse bid, they’ll stage the fight during Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, which will be November 18th.
If PBC wins the purse bid, it’s unlikely that Top Rank will agree to let Shakur take the fight with Martin because that would mean it would be shown on Showtime.
Shakur fights on ESPN, and a match between him and Martin wouldn’t be big enough to share between the two networks.
Haney is currently WBC ‘Champion in Recess,’ which means he can return to fight for his old belt, but no one thinks he will because Shakur is likely to be the holder of that strap.
ESPN broke the news of the World Boxing Council ordering Stevenson and ‘The Ghost’ Martin to fight for the WBC lightweight title.
It remains to be seen if the Stevenson vs. Martin fight will happen because, again, they fight is on different networks.
Last week, Shakur revealed that his contract with Top Rank is up next year, but he didn’t say if he’ll re-up with them for another hitch or move on to a different promotional company.
With Shakur wanting to get a fight with Gervonta Davis, he may leave Top Rank after his contract expires unless they throw crazy money at him to get him to stay. Unfortunately, even if Shakur does sign with PBC, that doesn’t mean Tank will fight him.
In a rare show of power, the former two-division world champion Shakur recently stopped Shuichiro Yoshino in the sixth round last April in a WBC lightweight title eliminator in Newark, New Jersey.
That was the 26-year-old Stevenson’s first official fight at 135 after losing his WBC & WBO super featherweight title on the scale in his twelve round unanimous decision win over Robson Conceição last September in a one-sided fight.
Frank Martin, 28, had been hoping to get a fight against WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta Davis but has been ignored. He recently beat Artem Harutyunyan by a close twelve round unanimous decision last month on July 15th in Las Vegas.
Martin was forced to rally in the championship rounds to pull out a narrow decision over Harutyunyan by the scores 115-112, 115-112, and 114-113. The knockdown by Martin in the twelfth round clinched it.
