As per a news story from ESPN.com, Shakur Stevenson and Jamel Herring are in advanced talks to fight some time in the fourth quarter of this year, with Herring’s WBO 130 pound title to be on the line. This is a solid match-up and a potentially great fight. Stevenson by his own admission looked pretty poor in his last outing, when he won a wide but less than thrilling decision over Jeremiah Nakathila.
As for Herring, he looked great in stopping (and retiring from the sport) Carl Frampton in his last outing. That was ex-Marine Herring’s third title retention and Herring, 23-2(11) will be in zero mood to lose his belt to Stevenson. The unbeaten Stevenson, though, is looked at as a possible mega star of the future, this despite his lacklustre showing last time out (when Stevenson was ill upon entering the fight).
According to the ESPN.com piece, the fight could be staged in Atlanta. Herring, aged 35, will be giving away quite the edge in terms of age, with Stevenson being only 24. But will Herring perhaps be too tough and determined for Stevenson? Herring says he is not “stressing the fight” at all.
“You can hear in my voice, I’m not really stressing about this fight,” Herring said. “I know people said I would avoid the fight because I wanted to fight Oscar Valdez. I just felt in my heart a fight with Oscar Valdez is bigger for my career. It would be a unification and for the lineal title, so why would I not pish for that fight? If I have to go through Shakur to get this fight, so be it.”
Stevenson, 16-0(8) also wants a big fight with Valdez.
“I go fight Jamel Herring next and go beat him and then go beat Oscar Valdez,” Stevenson said. “They’ll be saying I’m the best young fighter and put me on the pound-for-pound list.”
So both Herring and Stevenson want the same thing, and the winner out of them would be the ideal next challenger for Valdez. Who wins this battle of southpaws? Stevenson will have to up his game considerably from his last performance, while Herring will look to keep his seven-fight win streak going. Herring-Stevenson is a pretty tough one to call. Let’s hope it does happen.
The question should be who cares.
Stevenson would own herring.