Shakur Stevenson is reportedly looking for a replacement to defend his WBC lightweight title on DAZN PPV on Saturday because his initially scheduled opponent, Floyd Schofield, has suffered an illness.
Padley or Gholam?
The Ring reports that these are the two replacement options being considered:
– Josh Padley
– Moussa Gholam
Those are obviously poor replacements, as neither of them are world-class fighters. It’s unclear if Shakur’s WBC belt would be at stake if one of those two are the challengers.
Some see this as karma because Stevenson hand-picked the inexperienced 22-year-old Floyd Schofield over the more proven Andy Cruz, Ernesto Mercado, and Edwin De Los Santos. This is what you get when a champion picks a guy for the wrong reasons.
If Shakur fights the British-level fighter Padley or the super featherweight Gholam, it takes away Hearn’s ability to use the victory call out Gervonta Davis to fight Stevenson. Gervonta could reject Shakur based on his weak resume at 135, filled with four empty wins against lesser opposition. It might be better for Shakur to cancel completely rather than fight those two unknown lesser guys.
One positive from this is that Shakur’s fight with Schofield was buried deep on the undercard and was nowhere near the main event. So, even if he does wind up fighting the little-known Brit Padley or the equally obscure Gholam, it’s not a big deal. The Stevenson-Schofield was already out of sight, out of mind, generating no buzz during the build-up.
Hearn needs to focus on using proven fighters for Shakur’s opponents in the future. He’s got Andy Cruz ranked in the #3 spot with the WBC. That’s a logical fight if Hearn is willing to see Shakur potentially get beaten and ruin his whole purpose in signing him. He inked Stevenson because he wanted to make the Gervonta Davis fight. That’s not going to happen if Shakur gets beaten.
