Valdez and Stevenson chasing pound-for-pound stardom

Five years and one week ago Shakur Stevenson was making his professional bow on the undercard of Oscar Valdez's WBO featherweight title defence against Miguel Marriaga in California. 

Five years and one week later Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez will share the same ring as they put their respective WBO and WBC super featherweight world titles and undefeated records on the line in a clash of contrasting styles and a unification bout entrenched with pound-for-pound ambitions.

Even in 2017, Stevenson, not long out from winning silver at the Olympics, envisioned matching up with his Mexican counterpart one day down the line.

"Most definitely, I was focused on my fight but I see him fight and I definitely was thinking about me and him fighting later on at the same weight," he said.

"It was always in my head we were going to fight."

On that occasion Stevenson beat Edgar Brito in the first of 17 successive wins thus far in his career, while Valdez weathered a fiery mid-round response from Marriaga to clinch a unanimous decision victory, retaining his featherweight title for the second of six defences in total.

Valdez enters Saturday with a 30-0 record consisting of 23 knockouts as he seeks to emulate Mexican greats Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. Sharing the Las Vegas stage with the 2022 NFL Draft, it beckons as the front-page clash of superstars he always worked towards.

"I'm very excited for this. Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed of these kinds of opportunities, to be fighting for unified championships and to be fighting in Las Vegas.

"It's the perfect time to have this fight now. Shakur Stevenson is a two-time world champion right now. I'm a two-time world champion, as well. It's the perfect time. Let's prove