Shakur Stevenson is done with Zuffa Boxing. On Monday, Oct. 19, he released a statement announcing the split, and Boxing News Online and The Ring both reported that his next move is to launch a promotional company of his own. From here on, Stevenson plans to put on his own fights under his own banner.
The statement, as reported, didn’t come with a fight attached. Neither outlet’s headline named an opponent, a date, a broadcast partner or the terms of his exit from Zuffa. That leaves the most useful question for anyone tracking his career sitting in plain view. Who does a fighter-run promotion call first?
Where Stevenson fits right now
The timing gets interesting once you look at what happened in boxing over the past few weeks. Three days before the split, MMA Mania reported, citing The Ring’s Mike Coppinger, that Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez are in advanced talks to fight in the first quarter of 2027. No date or location has been set.
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Lopez is the fighter Stevenson beat. According to MMA Mania, Lopez recovered from that loss by beating Rolando Romero about two months ago, winning a super welterweight title and moving to 23-2. Garcia, the WBC welterweight champion, is coming off a second-round knockout of Conor Benn last month. Benn fights under the Zuffa Boxing banner, and that night was Garcia’s first title defense after he took the belt from Mario Barrios earlier this year. Lopez was ringside for it. When Garcia called him out afterward, Lopez tried to get into the ring and security cut him off.
MMA Mania pointed out that the winner of Garcia vs. Lopez could go on to a big payday against Devin Haney or Stevenson. The same piece described a sport in need of new stars, with Terence Crawford retired and Canelo Alvarez apparently near the end of his career.
The style conversation
Stevenson has also shown up in MMA conversations lately, which is unusual for a boxer who rarely gets drawn into crossover talk. Last week MMA Fighting asked on X whether MMA fans appreciate fighters like Stevenson and Floyd Mayweather. Earlier, a user going by Arnold billy allen raised the same question about fight IQ and wondered whether that hit-and-don’t-get-hit approach would carry over to MMA. In the same post he admitted that what first hooked him on combat sports was Wanderlei Silva headbutting people in vale tudo. A lot of us got here that way, and it explains why a defensive genius can have a harder time winning over a crowd that came up on that kind of chaos.
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Quick take
I like this move for Stevenson, with one condition. Running your own promotion only works if you have something people want to buy, and he has a clean win over Lopez that he can sell. If Lopez gets past Garcia early next year, Stevenson won’t need anyone else’s matchmakers to argue for a rematch, because his own company can make the offer directly. I’d expect his first big announcement to come after the Garcia vs. Lopez result in the first quarter of 2027.
