After a petition from Top Rank, WBO president Gustavo Olivieri has officially ordered super lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson to face former lightweight titlist Raymond Muratalla, giving the two 20 days to negotiate and avoid a purse bid.
It’s a smidge odd that Muratalla (25-0, 17 KO) got the top spot in their 140-pound rankings, as he held the IBF lightweight belt and it’s normally other WBO champions that get this sort of treatment, but it’s hard to argue that other high-rankers like Emiliano Vargas and “Tito” Mercado deserved it more. “Danger” had a damn fine run at 135, beating Tevin Farmer, Zaur Abdullaev, two-time Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz, and most recently Robson Conceicao. The man can fight and he’s not intimidated by credentials; with unifications and welterweight adventures currently off the table for Stevenson, Muratalla’s probably the most interesting opponent he presently has available to him.
Stevenson (25-0, 11 KO) has fought just once this year, cruising past Teofimo Lopez to claim the belt in January. Negotiations with WBA champ Gary Antuanne Russell and welterweight champ Devin Haney fell through, reportedly for financial reasons, and a brief fling with Zuffa Boxing failed to last. He’s short on leverage at the moment and this ruling means that, unless he ditches the belt, Top Rank will get to decide what to pay him for his next outing.
I’m sure Bob’s salivating at the chance to show Shakur exactly what he thinks of the latter’s latest shenanigans.