Shakur Stevenson will see out his existing deal with Top Rank when he fights Artem Harutyunyan on July 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Gifted Stevenson, the WBC lightweight champion, failed to dazzle against a reluctant Edwin De Los Santos in November in Las Vegas but is one of the best talents in the sport and is 21-0 (10 KOs).

Germany-based Armenian Harutyunyan is 12-1 (7 KOs), won bronze for Germany at the 2016 Olympics, and is coming off a narrow decision loss to Frank Martin last July.

“This is Shakur’s last fight under our contract,” said Top Rank’s Carl Moretti, “so we hope to be back with him and see if we can put a deal together, but the contract is up and he has the right to go out and see what’s available elsewhere.”

Stevenson is a significant attraction in Newark, and despite talks with other opponents, including briefly with William Zepeda, Harutyunyan – the WBC’s No. 6 – got the call.

“When you go down the rankings and you see who’s actually available to fight, it doesn’t leave you with a lot. Knowing Artem’s amateur background, his fight with Frank Martin, he’s been in the running for a while,” said Moretti who, when asked whether there were talks with Golden Boy’s Zepeda replied: “Yes, and then when we actually called to talk about it, they didn’t go far.”

Stevenson’s two fights before De Los Santos in Las Vegas both were at the Prudential Center, where he defeated Robson Conceicao and Shuichiro Yoshino, and it was logical to take him back there.

“The fact he’s from Newark makes sense, it’s a holiday in the States, July 4th weekend, so Vegas wasn’t going to be available and when you go through arenas that actually make sense, Newark is the top of the list,” said Moretti.

Is Moretti confident Stevenson will realign with Top Rank after Harutyunyan?

“I’m not confident he’ll stay, I don’t know if he’ll go,” said Moretti. “The only thing I’m confident on is he has the right to go explore and see what other options are and then their team will make a decision.”