WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson will be vacating his world title, per ESPN.
The reason for this move according to the US media is his desire to move up to the junior lightweight division.
the junior lightweight division just got deeper with the addition of Shakur Stevenson, one of two WBO champions to vacate their belts… #boxing
Stevenson moving to 130, 'taking on all comers' https://t.co/lVC4gA5Ax3
— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) July 9, 2020
Antonio Leonard, who co-promotes Stevenson, told ESPN: “We’re moving up. We’re getting all the belts, and everyone can get it.”
However, Top Rank’s head Bob Arum said he hasn’t heard anything from neither Leonard nor Stevenson.
“I haven’t heard from Antonio Leonard for about a week or so,” Arum said. “I got to hear it from either James Prince or Shakur himself,” Arum said. “Because we’re still trying to do the Josh Warrington fight at featherweight, but we’ll see what happens.”
Stevenson made his junior lightweight debut last month when he defeated Felix Caraballo in a non-title fight in Las Vegas.