Shakur Stevenson was stripped of his WBC lightweight title in early February 2026 after he moved up in weight to fight Teofimo Lopez for a different organization’s world title at 140 pounds, triggering a WBC rule that made his lightweight belt automatically vacant.

Why did Shakur Stevenson get stripped?

The official reason

The WBC announced that Stevenson was no longer its lightweight champion and declared the title vacant right after he beat Teofimo Lopez for the WBO 140‑lb belt at Madison Square Garden.

Under WBC rules, a champion generally cannot hold a WBC belt in one division while becoming a champion for another organization in a higher division without special approval, so once he won at 140, his 135‑lb title was automatically forfeit.

In other words:

  • He was WBC champion at lightweight (135 lbs).
  • He fought Lopez for the WBO title at junior welterweight (140 lbs).
  • By winning at 140 without specific WBC sanction for that move, he fell under a rule that forces the WBC to vacate his old title.

The WBC framed it as standard enforcement of its regulations, not a punishment for trash talk or performance.

What Stevenson says happened

Stevenson publicly blasted the decision on X and said the real reason he was stripped was money.

He claimed:

  • The WBC wanted a 100,000‑dollar fee linked to the Lopez fight, despite there being no WBC belt on the line.
  • He refused to pay, calling the fee “100k to some crooks who don’t deserve it” and saying he’d rather give that money to his daughter than to the organization.
  • He argued the WBC had “nothing to do” with the Lopez bout, so they had no business charging a six‑figure sanctioning fee.

So from Stevenson’s viewpoint, getting stripped was payback for not paying that fee, rather than just a neutral application of a rulebook.

This isn’t the first time he’s been stripped

Fans searching “why did Shakur Stevenson get stripped” might also run into his earlier situation at 130 pounds.
Back in 2022, he lost his WBO and WBC junior lightweight belts on the scale when he failed to make weight before his fight with Robson Conceição.

Key difference:

  • 2022: Stripped because he missed weight at the lower division.
  • 2026: Stripped because of sanctioning‑body rules around moving up and winning another organization’s title, plus the controversy over a 100k fee he refused to pay.

Both times, he kept fighting and winning in higher weight classes, so the strips didn’t stop his momentum, but they did fuel a lot of debate about boxing politics and sanctioning bodies.

Fan and forum talking points

Boxing forums and social media discussions around “why did Shakur Stevenson get stripped” tend to split into a few angles:

  1. “Just the rules” view
    • Argues the WBC simply applied a written rule about champions moving up and taking other belts.
 * Says Stevenson knew what he was signing up for when he chose to chase the Lopez fight and a new title at 140.
  1. “Money and politics” view
    • Focuses on the 100k fee and sees the rule as a convenient lever to pressure fighters into paying sanctioning fees even when that body’s belt isn’t at stake.
 * Points to his comments comparing the situation to the WBC’s clashes with other stars like Terence Crawford as evidence of a deeper power struggle.
  1. “Does the belt even matter?” view
    • Notes that Stevenson walked away with a major win and a world title at a higher weight and publicly said the belt “don’t make me.”
 * Frames this as another example of elite fighters caring more about legacy fights and big paydays than about individual sanctioning‑body belts.

An example of the mood you’ll see in comment sections:

“He moves up, beats another champ, and somehow the story becomes about fees and belts instead of the fight. Classic boxing politics.”

Quick recap (TL;DR)

  • Shakur Stevenson was stripped of his WBC lightweight title after he moved up to 140 lbs and won the WBO belt against Teofimo Lopez, activating a WBC rule that made his 135‑lb belt vacant.
  • The WBC says it was an automatic application of its regulations about champions holding titles in different divisions and organizations.
  • Stevenson says he was really stripped because he refused to pay a 100,000‑dollar fee to the WBC for a fight where their belt was not on the line, and he publicly blasted the organization for it.
  • Earlier in his career he was also stripped at 130 lbs, but that time it was for missing weight before a title defense.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.