Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson agree to terms, no purse bid

You can forget about the purse bid scheduled for Aug. 9 and various ways that could have gone, as ESPN now reports that WBO junior lightweight titleholder Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson have agreed to terms for a bout this fall.

Stevenson manager James Prince told Mike Coppinger that the sides are “in agreement on everything,” and called it “a done deal.”

Top Rank are currently trying to figure out their fall schedule. Promoter Bob Arum recently said Herring-Stevenson could happen on Nov. 13, but that’s not set, and neither is any other fight just yet, at least not officially. Top Rank also have Joe Smith Jr vs Umar Salamov for Smith’s WBO light heavyweight title, Vasiliy Lomachenko’s likely return on Dec. 11 — which could be against Richard Commey, but that’s not concrete — Josh Taylor against Jack Catterall in Scotland, and the possible Terence Crawford vs Shawn Porter fight to work on.

Stevenson (16-0, 8 KO) most recently fought on June 12, easily beating Jeremiah Nakathila over 12 rounds. He’s a former 126 lb titlist, winning that belt against Joet Gonzalez in 2019 and then never defending it, moving up in weight last year.

Herring (23-2, 11 KO) retired Carl Frampton with a stoppage win on Apr. 3 in Dubai, and the 35-year-old southpaw has weighed his options, settling here, it seems, on Stevenson being the biggest fight he’s going to get, which was never an unlikely outcome.