Ring Magazine reported that Lomachenko is now a free promotional agent and is looking for the biggest fights available. Shakur’s quick reassignment led many fans to believe he still wanted the match despite years of failed attempts to make it happen.
The problem is that some fans believe the fight has lost much of its appeal due to Lomachenko’s age and physical decline. Lomachenko is now 38 years old, while Shakur is 28 and physically much larger than the former featherweight champion.
Lomachenko looked at his best at 126 pounds earlier in his career before moving up to lightweight in 2018. Even during some of his wins at 135, fans and analysts saw him as undersized against naturally bigger fighters.
This became part of the criticism leveled against Stevenson after his repost. Some fans on X argued that the fight would have had much more meaning in the 2022 to 2024 time frame when Lomachenko was younger and still near the top of the lightweight division.
Shakur has publicly called for the Lomachenko fight for over four years. Early in that run, Stevenson viewed the bout as the ultimate battle of skills and repeatedly challenged Lomachenko in interviews and on social media.
Since the fight did not materialize, Stevenson became more aggressive in public, accusing Lomachenko of avoiding him and turning down opportunities to fight. Now, with Lomachenko reportedly returning as a free agent, the possibility has reopened, although many fans no longer see the fight the same way they once did.
Lomachenko has not fought since his eleventh-round victory over George Kambosos Jr. not in May 2024. Before that performance, many fans believed he had slipped physically in fights against Jamaine Ortiz and Devin Haney after peaking earlier in his career at featherweight.
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) May 12, 2026
