American southpaw Shakur Stevenson 12-0 (7) will face the toughest test of his short career when he meets Joet Gonzalez 23-0 (14) for the vacant WBO featherweight title at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada on Saturday night.
The world title fight will also serve to settle a long-simmering feud between the two after it was revealed that Stevenson has been dating Gonzalez’s sister for several years – a relationship the Gonzalez family doesn’t approve of.
“I was never the one to put this out there. The media, the public, they found out because of him just running his mouth,” the 26-year-old Gonzalez said.
“And now when they ask him about it, he don’t want to talk about it. So, it’s personal. It’s personal, just the things he’s done, the things he’s said, and he’ll pay for that on Saturday night.”
Stevenson insists the personal aspect of the fight is all coming from Gonzalez.
“It’s personal for him. I’m not going in the ring with a personal mindset,” Stevenson said.
“I’m going in the ring to win a world title, so that’s what I’m going to do to win this world title.”
The 22-year-old Stevenson turned pro in 2017 after winning the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the bantamweight division. He has been eight rounds just twice and in April scored a 10-round decision win over Christopher Diaz at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Gonzalez is on a three-fight knockout streak following his 10-round split decision victory against Rafael Rivera in Los Angeles in July last year.
 will face the toughest test of his short career when he meets Joet Gonzalez 23-0 (14) for the vacant WBO featherweight title at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada on Saturday night.){kind=link}