By: Hans Themistode
While Shakur Stevenson is still getting acclimated to life at 130 pounds, the former Olympic silver medalist continues to keep tabs on his old weight class.
Although it no longer concerns him, Stevenson sat back and watched closely as WBO featherweight belt holder Emanuel Navarrete, took on former Stevenson foe, Christopher Diaz. The Mexican native had absolutely no trouble in destroying Diaz at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee Florida last night. Navarette outmuscled his man early, knocking him down four times before stopping him in the final round.
After watching Navarette take care of business, the current 130-pound contender is now chomping at the bit to step into the ring with him.
“I can’t wait for him to come up to 130,” said Stevenson on his Twitter account. “He don’t strike me as a duck like these other fighters.”
Regardless of the pair campaigning in two different weight classes, only four pounds separate them. With that said, a move up in weight isn’t expected from Navarette anytime soon considering he just arrived at 126 pounds last year. Ironically enough, Navarette’s arrival coincided with the departure of Stevenson and the subsequent vacating of his world title, something Navarette would pick up immediately.
Currently, Stevenson is in the midst of training camp as he prepares to take on Jeremiah Nakathila on June 12th for the interim WBO super featherweight title. With a win fully expected for the New Jersey native, Stevenson is positioning himself to take on full titleholder, Jamel Herring, who is coming off a huge win of his own against former two-division champion Carl Frampton.
According to Stevenson, the game plan is simple, take care of business against Nakathila and then move on to a showdown with Herring. If everything goes the way he envisions it, then he’ll get his chance sooner rather than later to knock Navarette off his high horse.
“If he vacate, I’m fighting for the title June 12th but honestly, if he comes up, I wouldn’t mind him being my first challenger for my belt.”