Shakur Stevenson Does Not Care About Undisputed Titles

Talking to Chris Mannix, Stevenson admitted that the undisputed title wasn’t as enticing as it once was.

“Undisputed was kind of watered down when I seen Kambosos get the titles. If it presented itself, then I’ll do it but I don’t care about it,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from Devin Haney because he’s a tremendous fighter but when we look at how he became undisputed champion, he went to Australia and fought Kambosos.”

In his view, simply collecting all four major belts no longer necessarily means a fighter is the best in the division. Kambosos Jr.’s brief reign crystallized that belief for him. Kambosos Jr produced a brilliant upset to defeat Teófimo López for the unified lightweight titles, but Stevenson felt that his subsequent performances, which included two one-sided losses to Haney and the highly controversial decision over Maxi Hughes, which Stevenson called a robbery after watching it ringside, showed that holding every belt does not automatically make someone the division’s standout fighter.

In his words, an undisputed champion should be someone universally recognized as the clear number-one fighter in the weight class, whose ability leaves little room for debate.

“I feel like there are 100 different fighters in the sport of boxing that could’ve done the same thing. It was a great business decision because he caught somebody who wasn’t that good with all the belts but for me, I don’t care for it anymore,” he said while further hinting at what actually matters to him. “I just care about my legacy as the best fighting the best. If I go fight against Tank, nobody cares whether it was for undisputed or not. They just care about the best fighting the best.”

“Money Getting Business”

But what enticed him to sign up with Zuffa? Stevenson’s answer was simple and sharp, the money.

“I’m in the money-getting business. The money is insane,” he said, but this doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t get the big fights that he wants. “I wouldn’t have signed if I can’t get the fights that I want.”