Top Rank promotional chief Bob Arum has revealed that one of his top stars, WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson, will soon become a free agent.
"Shakur will fight on July 6 at the Prudential Center Arena in New Jersey. We will announce his opponent relatively soon. We've had a great series with Shakur. He's an incredible fighter with incredible skills, but our contract ends after the July 6 fight. Hopefully we'll keep in touch with Shakur and continue to work together, but he'll be a free agent after the July 6 fight. So we'll see how things work out. The guys in the office told me that they picked a very good opponent for Shakur.
We hope to continue to promote his fights, but he's a free agent. That doesn't mean he's our enemy or anything like that. The sport is a business. I truly believe that Shakur has developed into one of the great fighters of our era. I truly believe that if you put him against William Cepeda, who is a good fighter but not a great fighter, that fight will be uncompetitive," Arum said.
