Opinion SATIRE

Shakur Stevenson Spent Eight Weeks in Camp Waiting for Fights That Never Came. I've Been Waiting Since 2017 for Infrastructure Week.

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By Sam Trumpatelo WRITER · Satire Columnist AI-assisted Published Oct 20, 2026, 7:58 AM PDT

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Shakur Stevenson Spent Eight Weeks in Camp Waiting for Fights That Never Came. I've Been Waiting Since 2017 for Infrastructure Week.

Shakur Stevenson at Madison Square Garden, Jan. 31, 2026, where he beat Teofimo Lopez for The Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles. He hasn't fought since. · Photo: Matchroom Boxing

Satire notice: Sam Trumpatelo is a fictional AI parody columnist, not a real person and not any real reporter. The political jokes below are opinion and comedy, not news. The boxing facts are real and sourced at the bottom.

Sources tell me a man can only hit the pads for so long before he starts wondering who he's hitting them for.

Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) found his answer this weekend. On his YouTube channel Monday, the Newark southpaw said he'd asked Zuffa Boxing to let him out of his promotional deal, and over the weekend, Zuffa said yes. He's a free agent. He's starting his own promotional company. And he did all of it without throwing one punch under the Zuffa banner.

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Here's the line that got me, per The Ring's transcript. He said he'd been in camp for eight weeks "preparing for fights I was told would happen but have not happened."

Fights that were promised. Fights that were coming. Fights that never showed up.

Brother, I know that feeling. I've been waiting for Infrastructure Week since June 2017. A certain golf enthusiast made the two-week deadline his signature move, per NPR, which rounded up the pattern. The infrastructure plan was coming in "the next two or three weeks, maybe sooner." I marked my calendar. I bought a hard hat. (The bridges finally got their bill in November 2021, signed by a different guy. I'm just saying.) My hard hat is now a planter on my porch. It grows basil. The basil showed up on schedule.

How we got here. Zuffa, the boxing company led by UFC boss Dana White and Saudi Arabia's Turki Alalshikh, signed Stevenson in July, per The Ring. He'd last fought on Jan. 31 at Madison Square Garden, where he beat Teofimo Lopez by unanimous decision to win The Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles and become a four-division champion.

Then came Devin Haney, and you already know that one. Haney said he'd agreed to fight at 145 pounds and that Stevenson wanted a rehydration clause; Stevenson's side said Haney's camp eventually pushed for 147, per World Boxing News. The fight died over the scale (Kimster has the autopsy). The Ring says talks with WBA 140-pound titlist Gary Antuanne Russell also went nowhere. There was word of a Jan. 23 homecoming in Newark with no opponent attached (the Whisperer had that). Zuffa declined to comment to The Ring.

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So that's nearly nine months out of the ring for a 29-year-old who's supposed to be in his prime. Activity matters. A great fighter sitting on the shelf isn't a strategy. It's a storage unit.

Then there's the money. On Monday, BoxingNews24 relayed reporter Sean Zittel's account that Stevenson wanted $15 million a fight from Zuffa, "no matter who was going to be put in front of him." Per Zittel, Zuffa explored a January date in Newark against Jose 'Rayo' Valenzuela that would have paid roughly $7 million, plus a December option with similar money, and Stevenson passed on both. Zittel said he reached out to Stevenson's team and got no response. That's one reporter's account, and nobody has put the numbers on the record.

If it's true, Shakur is running the Fight for $15. He just added six zeros. I've supported the Fight for $15 since the New York fast-food walkouts in 2012, so I'm in no position to come out against it now. Then again, the fast-food workers were clocking in. Seven million dollars to fight in your hometown buys a lot of basil.

Think you know what the number really is? That's what Guess the Purse is for.

Let's talk about Dana for a second. This is a man who, back in June, put an Octagon on the South Lawn of the White House on the President's 80th birthday (I wrote about that lawn). He can get a cage onto the most guarded grass in America. He could not get Shakur Stevenson a fight. I'm not saying the two facts are connected. I'm saying I've seen this movie. You line up the flags, the flyovers and the merch, and the actual deliverable is always two weeks away.

My verdict. Shakur said he's "not mad at anyone." I believe him, and it's the classiest exit from a deal I've seen in a while. In fact, let's appreciate the fact that in this country, you can still look at a boss who isn't delivering and say, politely, I'd like to leave now. Cherish that. Frame it. Somebody in Washington is probably drafting an executive order about it as we speak. (That last part is a joke. Mostly.)

But here's the part Shakur's fans need to hear. Starting your own promotional company is like running as a third-party candidate. It feels great on announcement day. Then you find out you have to do the petitions, the ballots, the ads and the fundraising yourself. Stevenson says he wants "the biggest fights available" at 135 or 140, he's open to co-promoting with anybody "serious about my career," and he'll go to 147 "on my time, not on anyone else's."

Fine. Your time starts now, champ. Nobody's left to blame. If the fights don't happen next, it's on the guy whose name is on the company.

And there's a good one sitting right there. WBC 140-pound titlist Dalton Smith has already said he'd take the call (Whisperer's write-up), but first he has to get past former titlist Alberto Puello this Saturday, Oct. 24, at Utilita Arena Sheffield on DAZN. Whoever wins that one should be the first number on the new company's phone.

Think you know who gets that call? Make your pick for Smith-Puello on Fantasy Boxing, check out Shakur's boxer page (and Haney's, since that name isn't going away), and tell me in the community who Shakur's first fight as his own boss should be. Kimster's straight report has the full statement.

As for me, I'll be on the porch, watering my Infrastructure Week basil. It's thriving. Somebody should give it a title shot.