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Despite young rising star Shakur Stevenson repeated calling out Oscar Valdez for a fight he wants before the year is out, it doesn’t seem that Stevenson will get his wish with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum telling ESPN that Valdez will instead face Robson Conceicao this September in Arizona. This obviously isn’t going to be thrilling news for Stevenson, who is on the hunt for a world title at 130, but it is what it is as they say.
Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) is most recently coming off the biggest win of his career, upsetting Miguel Berchelt this past February to become WBC world champion. His next opponent Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs), is a 2016 Olympic gold medal winner but has yet to step onto the big stage in the professional ranks, mostly beating low level opposition to this point.
The fight against Conceicao clearly won’t be as big of an event as it would be against Stevenson, but it would appear Arum has more designs on marination, not quite ready to toss two of his young stars into the ring with one another.