Raymond Muratalla wants Shakur Stevenson, and he is changing weight classes to get him.
The IBF lightweight champion made the case on ProBox TV, arguing the fight has been sitting there long enough.
Absolutely, I think it only makes sense now. It is something that we have been wanting, that has never gone through. At this point, that would be something that the fans would love to see, something that he would love and yeah, it only makes sense.
Hopefully it happens naturally and we don’t gotta do all the extra bulls**t.
He also thinks he presents a problem Stevenson has not had to solve.
The style that I display makes me dangerous for Shakur. I adjust and I am overall a very complete fighter. He has never faced a fighter like me and it would be a good fight for the fans.
Muratalla is 25-0 and beat Robson Conceicao on August 1 in Las Vegas, his second defence of the title. He has said the weight cut left him short of his best that night and that moving up to 140 is overdue, which would put him in Stevenson’s division and likely in line as the WBO’s leading contender.
He wants it soon.
I would love for it to happen by the end of this year, that would be ideal. I want to be active, I feel good, I feel amazing, actually. So, hopefully by the end of this year, but I have no date or anything planned yet.
The obstacle is not the sanctioning bodies. Stevenson took the WBO super-lightweight title from Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden in January and has not defended it since, and in July he signed with Zuffa Boxing, the promotion co-founded by Dana White under TKO, which also owns WWE and UFC. Since that deal he has publicly aimed at Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney rather than Muratalla.
If Muratalla does vacate at 135, Artur Subkhankulov and Dmitry Asanau are expected to meet for the vacant IBF title.
