Shakur Stevenson's homecoming fight has been officially announced for next month.
In a press conference in Newark, New Jersey, it has been announced that Stevenson will face Hairon Socarras in the main event of a Top Rank on ESPN card from the Prudential Center on July 13. The fight will be Stevenson's first in his hometown of Newark since becoming a pro boxer in 2017.
Stevenson, a former Olympic silver medalist from the 2016 Olympics, is coming off a dominant performance against former word title challenger Christopher Diaz on April 20 as part of the pay-per-view card for Terence Crawford's WBO welterweight title defense against Amir Khan. Despite only having 11 fights as a pro, the unbeaten Stevenson has already emerged as a rising featherweight contender. The 21-year-old Stevenson is also the current IBF Intercontinental and NABO featherweight champion and is ranked in the top five at 126 pounds by the WBA, WBO and IBF.
Socarras is a 26-year-old boxer from Cuba who has been fighting professionally since 2011. Socarras is unbeaten as a pro, coming into the fight with a 22-0-3 record. This would be Socarras' third fight of 2019 after coming out on top in his first two fights this year. He last fought on May 10 in Hollywood, Florida, scoring a fifth-round stoppage win over Jesus Martinez and extending his win streak to six fights.
Also announced for the card is the co-main event bout between Joshua Greer Jr. and Nikolai Potapov where the winner will be inserted as the No. 2 contender for the IBF bantamweight title currently being held by Naoya Inoue.
Greer, ranked No. 4 by the IBF, has won his last 17 fights and is coming off an eighth-round TKO victory over Giovanni Escaner to retain the WBC Continental Americas title back in February. Potapov has won his last three fights, all from inside the distance, after losing a 2017 bout against Omar Narvaez.
