The WBC is becoming increasingly specialized in the art of stripping champions of their belts. The decision to vacate the super middleweight title immediately after Terence Crawford’s historic victory over Saul “Canelo” Álvarez — justified by “Bud’s” refusal to pay the organization 300,000 dollars from his purse — sparked widespread debate. Now the same fate has befallen Shakur Stevenson.
The American boxer, who held the WBC lightweight title, captured the WBO super lightweight belt last Saturday, clearly outpointing the previous champion Teofimo Lopez. According to WBC regulations, Stevenson had 15 days to decide in which weight class to continue his career and which of the two belts to keep, but the WBC title was taken from him well before the two-week deadline had expired.
The reason? Another loophole in the regulations of the organization led by Mauricio Sulaiman states the following:
“In the event that a WBC champion competes in any bout in which his WBC title is not at stake, the champion is obligated to pay to the WBC fifty percent (50%) of the WBC sanction fee payable as if the bout were a title defense.”
Shakur’s reaction was immediate. The talented American boxer used very harsh words to comment on the situation in two posts on social media platform X:
“100k to some crooks who don’t deserve it? Nah Leilani I rather give it to u baby girl.. The WBC didn’t even have shit to do with this fight and it’s eating them alive take your belt it don’t make me.”
“And I just paid these dudes after my last fight.. What the hell im giving yall 100k right now for? Because yall got beef with Bud so come at me for it.”
Sulaiman will of course shield himself behind the regulations, but there are many within the boxing world who, in recent hours, have been pointing out the WBC’s double standards in applying its own rules. American journalist Chris Mannix, for example, also on X, posted the following:
“The WBC handed out interim belts so Canelo didn’t have to defend against David Benavidez but, yeah, strip Shakur Stevenson seven months after he defended it against the No. 1 contender. Explain that, Mauricio”