Stevenson is following the example set by his mentor, the great Terence Crawford, who did the same thing two months ago: On September 13, 2025, Crawford became the world super middleweight champion, defeating Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in a brilliant performance. The fight was contested for the WBC, WBO, IBF, and WBA titles. At its convention shortly afterwards, the WBC stripped Crawford of the WBC title over a dispute about sanctioning fees. Crawford responded with a mic-drop video shaming the WBC and its president. His choicest comments were: "Just had to get something off my chest. I got a lot to say... I see Mauricio [Sulaiman, president of the WBC] got a lot to say about me not paying him $300,000... They ain't going to tell me. I ain't [going to] apologize. Like, who the f--- you think I am? Well, you better slap your f-in self. I ain't paying your ass sh*t. What the f-ck you talking about pay you $300,000? What makes you so mother's---ckin better than any other other sanctioning bodies ... You can take the f-ckin belt. It's a trophy anyway... Why should I have to pay to carry your belt? You should be paying me. It irks my nerves how this dude gets on a plane, gets a hotel suite, him and his buddies go out to five star meals and guess who has to pay for it? Us fighters... It's all done on our dime... We getting battered, knocked upside our head but everyone we set foot in the ring, we gotta pay the. We getting taxed, its crazy... Mauricio, I appreciate you because everyone in the word knows you were going for Canelo, and you were mad I beat Canelo. If you were a real fan of the sport you would have said congratulations. But listen, you should have taken the money [I offered] and you should have been grateful... but you wanted to make it about you."