He was an undefeated boxer, a boxing expert who had won world titles in three weight classes and had recently parted ways with Top Rank, his longtime promoter, in search of a bigger payday. But when the huge fight everyone wanted to see him in didn’t come, he went a different route—taking a fight with a smaller opponent that would keep him busy, and he took a lot of flak for it.

And in the very next fight Terence Crawford knocked out Errol Spence.

That’s what came to mind earlier this week when I learned about Shakur Stevenson’s next fight, his first since parting ways with Top Rank. Stevenson is not Terence Crawford. At least not yet. There are still some situational parallels.

Stevenson is also a three-time titleholder, having reigned at featherweight and junior lightweight before his current WBC lightweight title. Stevenson recently left Top Rank after spending his entire seven-year professional career with the organization, turning down a $3 million fight offer.

Stevenson’s name later appeared in two critical matches, one against WBA titleholder Gervonta Davis and the other against mandatory challenger William Zepeda. Instead Stevenson will face Joe Cordinaformer 130-pound titleholder who lost by technical knockout. Stevenson vs. Cordina will take place on October 12th on the pay-per-view undercard alongside Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

A few days after this announcement came another one: Stevenson signs with promoter Matchroom BoxingReports later emerged that the pair were initially set to share two fights.

For a player who is already facing a wave of disapproval, these moves will certainly do little to peaceful the situation.

Stevenson has taken the incoming fire, some fair, some not, after his last two wins. In November 2023, he scored a dismal victory over Edwin De Los Santos on a night in which both fighters they landed just 105 punches in total over 12 rounds. Stevenson landed 65 of them while throwing just .209, meaning he averaged about 5-of-17 per round. As for power punches, Stevenson had just 19-of-52, meaning he landed about four power punches per round and landed fewer than two. Most of his otherwise constrained offensive output came in the form of straights.

But then it turned out that Stevenson struggled with injuries. The next fight would probably be better, we thought. Then came Stevenson’s sweeping victory in July over Artem Harutyunyan. Stevenson’s offensive numbers were much better: he had 170 of 446 total, including 126 of 284 power punches. Still, Stevenson was so clearly superior to Harutyunyan that many thought he could have done more to dominate the attack.

Stevenson later placed even greater emphasis on defending himself on social media than he did in the ring, further infuriating his critics.

When Stevenson left Top Rank, critics wondered if Stevenson had overrated himself. They thought he hadn’t done enough to be a draw. They didn’t like his style. They didn’t like his substance.

So the fact that he’ll be facing Cordina and not Davis or Zepeda doesn’t support his case.

It’s no surprise that he chose Cordina. It’s also understandable that he’s irate about his choice.

Cordina, who is also a Matchroom Boxing fighter, has been on Stevenson’s radar since 2022. The Cardiff-based fighter expressed interest in facing Stevenson this yearand then knocked out Kenichi Ogawa to win the IBF junior lightweight title. Stevenson, who was also in the 130-pound weight class at the time, I congratulated Cordina and said he would cross the Atlantic Ocean to face him. The interactions between them were full of respect. Cordina even he defended Stevenson after the fight with Harutyunyan.

In return, Stevenson defended Cordina in his shocking loss to Anthony Cacace.

“He was delicate fighting at 130” Stevenson recently posted on Xbefore the Cordina fight was officially announced. “He’s a really good fighter, he just sucks [himself] “he did what he shouldn’t have done.”

However, the fight is a lot less appealing now that Cordina is coming off a loss in May. When you add in the expectations that we’re potentially on the border of Stevenson vs. Zepeda or Davis, the disappointment is even greater.

Stevenson has tested our patience. And now he asks for even more.

We should expect more from fighters like Stevenson. We want clearly outstanding talents and those who claim them to be tested against the best, not waste their time or ours.

2024 will go down in history as a year to forget for Stevenson in the ring. This could turn out to be a business decision, an investment attempt that Stevenson hopes will pay dividends in 2025.

“This is a business and in this business you have to make as much money as possible” Stevenson posted a few days ago“People want me to sit around and wait for literally every other player to show up. [their] decision whether they want to fight me now or later, but in reality I’ll wait and wait. But no, I’m [gonna] “Go and bring me that bag quickly, because it’s the most critical thing to me now.”

In particular, it concerns Matchroom’s cooperation with Turki Alalshikh, who financed boxing cards on behalf of Saudi Arabia, probably as part of an effort to change the narrative about the country and its regime. Although “Riyadh Season” Alalshikh currently works with several promoters, including Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, his biggest shows usually take place alongside Matchroom and Queensberry Promotions.

Stevenson I spoke briefly with Alalshikh earlier this month at the first Riyadh Season event in the United States, headlined by Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov. Now, he’ll be in the latest long-form Riyadh Season fight, among six fights whose fighters are willing to accept a lower payday in exchange for that payday and the possibility of a bigger one.

Stevenson may believe he can be the star of the season in Riyadh next year. And he may hope that the substantial checks Alalshikh hands out can attract better opponents than Cordina.

After all, there are no real contenders in the Matchroom stable for the lightweight division. Looking at the rankings Ring and International Boxing Rankings Councilis Matchroom’s Andy Cruz, the 2020/2021 Olympic gold medalist who recently turned pro and is just 4-0 (2 KOs). Queensberry has Mark Chamberlain (16-0, 12 KOs).

Zepeda is with Golden Boy, which, like Matchroom, is a broadcast partner of DAZN. Oscar De La Hoya with Golden Boy initially he said he wouldn’t fight Stevenson unless he signed with De La Hoya. But then Golden Boy began looking to leverage Zepeda’s position as mandatory challenger for Stevenson’s WBC belt.

Boxing reporter Mike Coppinger of ESPN claims that Zepeda’s wife is due to give birth soon, “so he wasn’t available.” However, boxing reporter Jake “Jazz Hands of Stone” Donovan of RingTV.com claims that multiple sources have told him that “Zepeda has not yet resigned from his position as mandatory challenger.” And if Zepeda were to pass on that fight, next in line would be Top Rank fighter Raymond Muratalla.

“Alalshikh has done this before, in fact with every event announced in Riyadh this season. There were two previous instances where a title fight was announced before it was confirmed by the sanctioning body,” Donovan wrote.

BoxingScene’s Declan Warrington I spoke to Eddie Hearn from Matchroom on Stevenson’s short-term deal and his travel plan for the player.

“The first step of the plan is Joe Cordina, October 12, and if he wins there, Zepeda in February, and then we’ll move on from there,” Hearn said. “It’s a two-fight deal so we can get into the relationship, show Shakur what we can do and build his profile, probably for the Gervonta Davis fight next summer if he keeps winning.”

It seems there are still a lot of things that need to be ironed out, both about Stevenson’s participation in the show on October 12 and what might await him in 2025.

Will Alalshikh’s connections to Golden Boy and Top Rank convince Zepeda and Muratalla to leave?

Will the WBC give preference to those who will make it more money, as the sanctioning body often does?

Does Stevenson’s Matchroom contract only tie him to DAZN? Will Matchroom and Stevenson extend their business agreement after these two fights, or will Stevenson look to move on and take advantage of being a promotional free agent?

Does Stevenson’s departure from Top Rank mean he won’t be welcome to fight against its sizable stable of lightweights, including Vasiliy Lomachenko and Muratalla? Would Top Rank be willing to let some of its 135-pound fighters fight against their own broadcast partner in ESPN?

If Stevenson were to stay with Matchroom longer, could the Gervonta Davis fight happen, given Tank’s superstardom and the fact that Premier Boxing Champions and Amazon Prime Video would obviously want to be involved? Could it be co-promoted and co-broadcast with DAZN? That’s what happened with the Crawford-Madrimov card, which featured several PBC fighters.

Many of these answers won’t matter until 2025. For now, the Cordina fight is a disappointment, just as Crawford vs. Avanesyan wasn’t exactly a consolation prize compared to Crawford vs. Spence.

Seven months later, no one was complaining about Avanesyan’s fight.

With this in mind, a little patience — but not too much — may be in order.

Time — hopefully not too long — will tell.