When two belt holders in the lightweight division are seated ringside at a high-octane event, things can get intense.

The WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson was at the BMO stadium to support his mentor Terence Crawford, who eventually became a four-division champion by defeating Israil Madrimov in the super-welterweight division.

Meanwhile, Lomachenko, the IBF lightweight champion, was also present at the event. Ahead of the headliner bout, both fighters got into an intense verbal confrontation and had to be separated by security.

“Let’s go right now, outside,” Lomachenko shouted at Stevenson, to which Stevenson responded, “You are bluffing.” After the conclusion of the Madrimov-Crawford main event, Stevenson told FightHype, “He wants to act tough outside the ring but doesn’t want to fight me.” Meanwhile, the two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko said in an interview with DAZN, “He just wants money. He asks about a fight. He wants to use my name for the money, that’s it.”

In a previous media interview, Stevenson called Lomachenko “duck-Chenko” for refusing to take up his offer to fight him. Both fighters are managed by Top Rank, and Bob Arum was looking to make the fight between them. However, negotiations hit a roadblock after Shakur became a free agent in July. Stevenson has been trying to set up a fight against Lomachenko since last year, but for various reasons, both fighters’ camps could not reach an agreement.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum explained earlier this month that Lomachenko preferred to fight Gervonta Davis rather than Shakur Stevenson. “The Davis fight is more money. It’s a bigger fight. Fighters are in this business to make money, and you can’t fault them for that. Why take a fight that’s not going to earn them nearly as much as a fight that’s going to make them maybe double?” Arum said.

It should be noted that Stevenson’s last two performances against Edwin De Los Santos and Artem Harutyunyan were lackluster. His boxing display against Harutyunyan in front of his home crowd was so underwhelming that many spectators left their seats during the championship rounds. Stevenson’s reluctance to throw punches is costing him big-money fights. He needs to make serious adjustments to his offensive strategy, otherwise, he will lose his appeal in the professional circuit.

Another reason Lomachenko isn’t going to fight Stevenson anytime soon is that he wants to spend some time away from the boxing ring.

Lomachenko has sacrificed a financially lucrative offer to fight Gervonta Davis this year to spend more time with his family. Representatives of PBC and Top Rank met in Vegas last summer and were close to negotiating a deal for an ESPN-Prime Video pay-per-view fight. But the 37-year-old fighter pulled the plug on the deal. According to the Ukrainian’s manager, Egis Klimas, the boxer wants to spend “more time with the family.”

“Just money is not what motivates him. He doesn’t take anything just because of money. You can offer him millions, tens of millions of dollars—if he doesn’t have motivation, he’s not ready to prepare for the fight,” Klimas further stated.

Therefore, Davis and Stevenson have to wait longer to secure a fight with the two-time Olympic gold medalist. Meanwhile, Shakur and Davis won’t be wasting their time and are already on the lookout for other opponents. Would you like to see Stevenson fight Lomachenko, possibly next year? Let us know in the comment section below.