Dana White says he offered Stevenson his Zuffa Boxing release; Hearn pushes Smith fight

Both sides agree on the outcome, not on who started it. Shakur Stevenson wrote that he asked for his release after eight weeks in camp for fights that never happened. Dana White says he offered it and the camp accepted, adding that he has nothing bad to say about Stevenson or his team.

Why it fell apart is still unexplained. White would not say whether Zuffa tried to book fights, saying "I'm not going to get into any of that." Stevenson's longtime manager, James "J" Prince, told FightHubTV that negotiations over Devin Haney ate up too much time and accused Haney's father and trainer, Bill Haney, of blocking the fight. Prince said Stevenson wants partners who "honor their word and keep their word." Other outlets have run competing takes, including a claim attributed to a Hall of Famer that Stevenson fears risking his unbeaten record, but none has been backed with specifics. BJPenn.com reported that Stevenson wanted a big-money fight with Manny Pacquiao and was offered two lesser opponents for far less; that is a single-outlet report.

Eddie Hearn, speaking in Sheffield after Dalton Smith's split-decision win over Alberto Puello, said Zuffa signed Stevenson because it believed it had Haney, and when it could not deliver that fight it wanted to pay him less for another. He said DAZN's signings of Teofimo Lopez and Haney hurt Zuffa, and called Stevenson fighting only once this year "criminal".

The next step is open. Stevenson is 25-0 with 11 knockouts, the WBO junior welterweight champion, and says he is starting his own promotional company. Smith, 29, kept his WBC super lightweight title and Hearn called a fight between them natural, saying Stevenson "will fight anybody". Hearn has floated a unification at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield in May. Separately, Dan Rafael reports Top Rank has petitioned the WBO to make Raymond Muratalla Stevenson's mandatory challenger at 140 pounds; the WBO has not ruled. No date, deal or opponent exists yet, so watch whether Stevenson's new company engages with the Smith idea or turns elsewhere.