Shakur Stevenson fulminated over a unification bout against Oscar Valdez. While it may have taken longer to materialize than he wanted, he was officially given the opportunity on April 30th, 2022.

Despite being battle-tested in multiple divisions, Valdez proved to be little to no match for the former Olympic silver medalist, losing via lopsided unanimous decision. With a gigantic smile smothered across his face, Stevenson attempted to defend his unified throne just a few months later against Robson Conceicao.

What was meant to be his moment of jubilation, turned into an expected struggle as Stevenson would lose both his WBO and WBC super featherweight titles on the scales. Shortly after outclassing the former Olympic gold medalist, Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs) declared that his body would no longer allow him to compete at 130 pounds and that he would officially move up to the lightweight division.

With a plethora of options now standing before him, Stevenson is hoping to eventually skip to the front of the championship line and take on Devin Haney, the division’s undisputed champion. Haney though, is in the midst of negotiating a showdown that would see him take on Vasiliy Lomachenko.

In the meanwhile, the WBC has ordered their former 130-pound champion to enter a title eliminator. Thus far, several of the lightweight division’s top names are ostensibly reluctant to take him up on his offer. As Stevenson continues to sift through the sanctioning bodies' highest contenders, he admits that Frank Martin has caught his attention.

The 28-year-old from Detroit, Michigan, aggregated several wins during his 2022 campaign, but his recent victory over Michel Rivera made Stevenson nod his head in approval. Although Martin could eventually become someone he has to swap fists against, that didn't stop Stevenson from accentuating what makes Martin such a terrific fighter.

“I think he’s a great fighter,” said Stevenson on Thaboxingvoice. “He got great timing, speed, great reflexes. He’s definitely a great fighter, I don't take anything away from him.”