Dsalita Shakur Stevenson will defend his WBC lightweight title on July 6 against Artem Harutyunyan, according to ESPN.com’s Mike Coppinger, with the fight taking place in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey.
This is notable not because of the matchup — which isn’t very notable at all and will understandably be panned by many — but because it is the last fight on Stevenson’s current Top Rank deal, at which point he is free to test boxing’s open waters.
Though Stevenson (21-0, 10 KO) isn’t exactly boxing’s most entertaining action fighter, he does have some name value after years of aggressive promotional push by Top Rank and ESPN, and he’s got tremendous skills.
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Stevenson, 26, has talked about potentially fighting Ryan Garcia, but Garcia’s fight-to-fight life is a wild card at best at this point, and he’s slated to face Devin Haney on April 20, of course.
Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KO) is a 33-year-old Armenian you may have only seen in his lone career defeat, which was also his most recent fight. Harutyunyan lost a decision to Frank Martin in July 2023, and though he fought well in his first test above regional level, it’s a world title shot off of a loss all the same.
If you’re wondering why, perhaps, Martin is not facing Stevenson instead, you can chalk that up to various things, but the ultimate core of it is that Martin is expected to be the June opponent for Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ return to action.
