WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson and Joe Cordina have agreed to a fight on October 12th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Stevenson-Cordina will fight on the Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev undercard live on DAZN PPV at the Kingdom Arena. It’s unclear if Shakur will be in the co-feature fight on the card or buried below a couple of fights.
Placing the Shakur-Cordina fight in the tightly visible chief support spot would be risky for His Excellency Turki Alalshikh just in case Stevenson turns in another one of his timid performances like fans witnessed in his last two fights against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos. The last thing Turki needs is for the fans to be booing or walking out of the arena before the main event.
Stevenson, 27, reportedly signed a one-fight deal with Eddie Hearn and will fight Matchroom fighter Cordina. Cordina recently lost his IBF super featherweight title last May in an eighth-round knockout to Anthony Cacace.
Another Opponent Coming Off a Loss
“There is an agreement for Shakur Stevenson vs Joe Cordina on October 12 at the Beterbiev vs. Bivol evening in Saudi Arabia. Shakur has signed only this fight with Matchroom because he wants to be free in 2025 and negotiate with Gervonta Davis,” said Julius Julianis on X.
What makes this an especially bad opponent choice for Shakur is that he’s facing another guy coming off a loss, which makes it two in a row for him. Shakur’s last opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, was coming off a loss to Frank Martin in his previous fight.
It would have been nice for Shakur to raise the bar by fighting someone like Andy Cruz, who Hearn promotes, Raymond Muratalla, Floyd Schofield, or Edwin De Los Santos. At least one or two of those fighters would have readily agreed to fight Shakur for the payday they would get from Turki.
If it was Hearn’s idea for Shakur to fight Cordina to help one of his needy Matchroom fighters, you can give him a pass. But he still didn’t do Shakur any favors by selecting Cordina because he’s not well known in the U.S., and the fans that do know of him saw him get destroyed by Anthony Cacace last May.
It’s not a popular pick by Shakur taking on Cordina, but it’s par for the course for the Newark, New Jersey native. He’s not taken on any interesting opponents since moving up to 135 after capturing world titles at 126 and 130.
