Just a few days removed from his one-sided win over Teofimo Lopez that earned him the WBO and The Ring junior welterweight titles in New York City (see it again here), the World Boxing Commission (WBC) has stripped Shakur Stevenson of his WBC lightweight title.
“In light of Champion Stevenson now being the reigning WBO Super Lightweight World Champion and consistent with the WBC Rules & Regulations, the WBC has declared vacant its Lightweight World title,” the sanctioning body said Wednesday in a statement.
“The WBC will provide further information regarding the process to crown a new Lightweight World Champion in the near future.”
Stevenson did have plans to drop back down to the division to fight again after defending the title three times, with his most recent one coming in the summer of 2025. The WBC, however, didn’t even give him the opportunity to do so and made the decision to vacate the belt. No comments regarding sanctioning fees were made by WBC officials, but Stevenson was quick to reveal that seems to be the root of it all.
“100k to some crooks who don’t deserve it? Nah Leilani I rather give it to u baby girl,” he wrote on X. “The WBC didn’t even have shit to do with this fight and it’s eating them alive take your belt it don’t make me. And I just paid these dudes after my last fight. What the hell I’m giving ya’ll 100k right now for? Because ya’ll got beef with Bud so come at me for it.”
If you recall, the WBC stripped Terence Crawford of his WBC super middleweight title just a couple of months after taking it from Canelo Alvarez (see it here). It was later revealed that the move was likely prompted from “Bud’s” refusal to pay sanctioning fees to the commission, which resulted in a war of words between the two sides. Crawford is one of Stevenson’s closest friends and mentors.
With two major boxing stars and champions speaking out against WBC, it doesn’t bode well for the commission, who was accused by Crawford of pocketing all of the money collected from fighters to bankroll their expensive suites and dinners.
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