Shakur Stevenson is officially a free agent after his last fight under the Top Rank banner against Artem Harutyunyan on 6th July at the Prudential Center, Newark. Meanwhile, there are some in the boxing community who felt Stevenson was wronged by Bob Arum, who hosted the fight on a “random Thursday” because it was Stevenson’s last fight with them.

‘Sugar’ Stevenson, one of the elites in the lightweight division, defended his WBC lightweight title for the first time on Thursday, and is in the open market for new promoters as he looks forward to his next opponent. Regardless, when a user tried to shame Bob Arum on X today, boxing journalist Dan Rafael quickly debunked the conspiracy theory.

Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t a random Thursday

Things began normally for Dan Rafael, as he shared an update about a rematch between Oscar Valdez and Emanuel Navarrete, which is now being targeted for December 7th. After Rafael answered a user’s question about the aforementioned fight, another chimed in with some inflammatory comments about Bob Arum.

The user wrote, “Bob really be picking and choosing who he wants to promote properly, but had one of the biggest stars in boxing fighting on a random Thursday”. Reading this misinformed user’s tweet, Rafael quickly jumped into action, as he showed the user what the reality was about Stevenson’s fight in his hometown.

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“It was not ‘a random Thursday’”, Rafael quipped while highlighting that Stevenson fought at the best possible venue in the city, and that too, on a “huge sports week in Las Vegas” with the Formula 1 race in town. He even revealed that the broadcaster of the fight, ESPN, themselves wanted the fight to happen on that day. 

The journalist didn’t stop there! He then underscored that many, including the Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns fight, was also held on a weekday, which was also hosted by Top Rank. So, Rafael branded the comment “MORONIC”. Despite this, there’s no denying that a fight between Shakur Stevenson and Vasyl Lomachenko could have been made, especially since both were in Top Tank’s banner.

Nonetheless, Stevenson seems to have found several options when it comes to promotions he may potentially join.

Shakur Stevenson may join Mayweather Promotions

Since he became a free agent after the Harutyunyan fight, he now has several options, including Matchroom Boxing and Mayweather Promotions. However, a partnership with the latter seems more likely to happen after Stevenson shared a screenshot of a FaceTime call with Floyd Mayweather after his fight on Thursday. 

Even during an interview with Naji from Cigar Talk, Stevenson said, “It’s an option, for sure” about the possibility of joining Mayweather Promotions. “At the end of the day, I wouldn’t mind working with Floyd as long as it makes sense, and it is a partnership type of thing”, Stevenson added. He wants to face William Zepeda next, so whoever can make that fight happen, Stevenson may walk that way.

Even though Shakur Stevenson himself wasn’t completely satisfied with Top Rank, the user seems to have blown things out of proportion, forcing Dan Rafael to expose the reality. Do you think Top Rank wronged Stevenson? We would love to know!