Shakur Stevenson Will Defend Title Against Artem Harutyunyan July 6th on ESPN

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson will make the first defense of his recently won belt against newly beaten Artem Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) on July 6 at the Top Rank promoted event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The event begins at 9:00 pm ET on ESPN, ESPN, Deportes and ESPN+.

Undercard features Foster vs. Conceição

In the co-main event of the card, WBC super featherweight champion O'Shaquie Foster (22-2, 12 KOs) faces Robson Conceição (18-2-1, 9 KOs).

In a 10-round lightweight bout, Keyshawn Davis (10-0, 7 KOs) will face heavyweight boxer Miguel Madueño (31-2, 28 KOs), who was recently beaten by former fringe contender Steve Claggett in -10 on one side. -round the decision unanimously.

That gives him a little hint about what the Davis vs. What Madueno is all about. Top Rank is still involved in throwing Keyshawn to the finals after his poor performance against Nahir Albright last October.

That performance raised eyebrows about Keyshawn's ability to go anywhere in the lightweight division. The good news is that if Keyshawn doesn't make it to Top Rank, they still have lightweight Abdullah Mason, who looks like a real goalie at this point.

Harutyunyan Looks to Go Back

Harutyunyan, 33, is the guy Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) was rumored to be fighting next, and now it's official. Not the choice fans wanted to see from 2016 US Olympian Shakur, as they wanted him to at least rematch Edwin De Los Santos to prove his dubious victory last November was due to injury.

The fans don't believe it, and it looks weak for Shakur that he has moved on and is now fighting Harutyunyan, who lost his last fight against Frank Martin, and is returning to the top of the world with a loss. That's a bad look. Imagine a team going to the Super Bowl after losing their previous game. That's what happened on July 6 between Shakru and Harutyunyan.

This is believed to be Stevenson's last fight under his contract with Top Rank. Now he will move on to another promotion company or climb back up with Top Rank to get another hit.

It would be dangerous for Top Rank to sign Shakur to another contract because he has failed to gain fans outside of his hometown of Newark. The top lightweight fighters don't want to fight him because he's a defensive fighter.

The fight between Shakur and De Los Santos was heavily criticized by the ringside fans at T-Mobile because of all the moves Stevenson was making.