Six years ago, Shakur Stevenson and Joe Cordina competed for gold at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While neither walked away with the ultimate prize, it appears that both men may be at the top of their game as professionals.
Within a matter of months, Shakur Stevenson has defeated Jamel Herring to win the WBO Super Featherweight Championship and Oscar Valdez to win the WBC Super Featherweight Championship. Overseas, Joseph Cordina has knocked out Kenichi Ogawa to win the IBF Super Featherweight Championship. Now, it appears that the two may be on a collision course.
Shortly after Cordina knocked out Ogawa, Stevenson took to Twitter. While praising Cordina’s performance, he also challenged his fellow Olympian to a unification bout in his home country.
“I told y’all [that he’s] the best fighter at 130 from England. I would love to come to England for some smoke,” the Newark native tweeted.
Stevenson has not been shy about his goal of becoming the men’s undisputed super featherweight champion. Following his most recent victory against Valdez, he told his fans that he would look to fight Roger Gutierrez and then-champion Kenichi Ogawa.
“I want to collect all the belts at 130 and become undisputed,” he said months ago.
“I deserve to be a superstar so that’s what I gotta do.”
After hearing Stevenson’s comments, Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum shot down the young fighter’s hopes.
“F*ck being the unified champion. Screw that. There’s not a person in this room that knows the WBA champion or the IBF champion. So who wants to put those fights on? They’re not going to draw sh*t,” Arum said in May.
Despite Arum’s comments, he remains committed to pursuing his goals.
“I want to and I will but since I’m not [Lomachenko] Bob think undisputed is played out,” Stevenson replied.
