Top Rank CEO Bob Arum thinks that the recently ordered fight between Isaac Cruz and Shakur Stevenson will not take place and instead, both will take separate paths in search of the lightweight championships.
I don’t think Cruz is going to fight Shakur: Bob Arum
Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the WBC, ordered the fight during the body’s annual meeting in Acapulco, Guerrero, as a final eliminator to define the mandatory challenger. In addition to this, Sulaiman also confirmed that Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko will meet for the undisputed lightweight crown.
Although the WBC order exists, Arum thinks that both Pitbull and Shakur can decline the option and be placed as challengers by other of the three boxing organizations.
“I don’t think Cruz is going to fight Shakur,” Arum said in an interview with FightHype on YouTube, “The truth is that I think that nobody intends to fight Shakur in the division. We will probably take another path than the Cruz fight .”
“There are four agencies, Cruz will probably fight someone else to be mandated by another agency and we will do the same,” Arum went on, “Shakur will fight whoever he is. But I don’t blame Cruz for not wanting to fight him.”
Pitbull Cruz and Shakur Stevenson will not be given, according to Bob Arum
Cruz is currently represented by Manny Pacquiao Promotions, while Shakur Stevenson is with Top Rank. This is why the negotiations are not as simple as it was at the time for Arum’s promoter to close the fight between Shakur and Óscar Valdez.
While Cruz has not yet had a chance for a definitive belt. Stevenson just moved up to lightweight where he hopes to clinch a title in a different third division after becoming world champion at 126 and 130 pounds.
“If Cruz and his corner come at us, of course we will, but I don’t see anyone other than Haney or Lomachenko as a tough fight for Shakur,” Arum concluded, “Thats the reality”.
Stevenson was stripped of his WBC and WBO featherweight belts after going over a pound and a half at the weigh-in for his fight against Robson Conceicao in September. After that he announced that he was going to move up in the division and that he was not going to fight anymore at 130 pounds, so both belts were vacated.
On the other hand, Cruz had two fights in 2022 in which he back-to-back knocked out Yuriorkis Gamboa and Eduardo “Zurdito” Ramírez. He recently announced his plans to return to action in March 2023 in pursuit of becoming a world champion.
