With the news breaking that Shakur Stevenson’s fight with Joe Cordina is going in the dumpster now that Stevenson has had to withdraw due to an injury suffered in training camp, his Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks about what happened and what will be the plan for Stevenson now.
Hearn on Stevenson injuring himself and withdrawing from the Joe Cordina fight
“Limited info, really. Spoke to Shakur last night, he damaged his hand in camp. He’s been training in Colorado, sparring, and went to get scanned last night and he tore a tendon in his knuckle. He had to go for immediate surgery, which he had this morning. He’s out of surgery now, very disappointed — obviously disappointed for himself and we’re disappointed for Shakur and Joe Cordina as well and for Riyadh Season as well, but there’s nothing you can do.
“Operation complete and now it’s the road to recovery for 2025. We’ve been told we can expect him to be ready for February of 2025.”
On whether Stevenson will now head straight to a William Zepeda fight upon his return
“Yeah. I mean, obviously we want to look for opportunities for Joe and we still like to make that fight but at the same time the WBC, of course, have ordered that fight with Zepeda. Zepeda fights in November so it’s quite likely he heads straight into that fight.
“Fighters get injured all the time but unfortunately this was an operation that he had to have. Disappointed for Shakur and for Riyadh Season, and for Joe. It was a fight that everybody was looking forward to in terms of the fighters, and Joe was fired up for it and so was Shakur, looking forward to that fight and then moving into Zepeda.
“We’re looking at the future and the future is just to get him back to full health and get ready to fight, and target that fight in February, March 2025, or whenever it’s going to be. But the plan for me was for after those two fight, to fight Gervonta Davis, and that still remains the same, whether that’s one fight or two fights.”