WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson predicts that #1-ranked William Zepeda will take his “first L” in February when the two battle in Shakur’s debut with his new promoters at Matchroom.
There’s an excellent chance that Zepeda will defeat Shakur and make an example of him by chasing him. Zepeda cuts off the ring well and is difficult to avoid with movement. Shakur doesn’t possess the power or offensive skills to stand and fight a guy like Zepeda. It’s not possible.
Stevenson will need to hold his ground and actually fight to defeat Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs), who will be putting more heat on him than anyone he has ever fought before. He won’t get another cheap win based on using his hit-and-run style that we saw on display against Edwin De Los Santos.
De Los Santos is the toughest fight Shakur has had during his career, and he came close to losing to him last November.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has praised Shakur, saying that he’s a future “global superstar” and is surprised that he hasn’t already become a star. Hearn signed Shakur to a two-fight deal to get maximum value.
That’s the ideal way to escape from what could be a nightmare if Shakur loses one or both fights or if he’s booed out of the arena. Hearn would be stuck with a problem if Stevenson loses or continues to put on non-entertaining fights like he’s been doing through most of his seven-year career.
The first fight would be against Zepeda and the second one potentially against Gervonta Davis. If Shakur loses to Zepeda, there’s a good chance that the two will meet in a rematch.
This could be PPV, which will upset some fans, but it could be worth it to see how the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) deals with easily the most dangerous puncher of his seven-year professional career.
Shakur turned down a five-fight, $15 million deal to re-sign with Top Rank. For Hearn to sign Shakur to Matchroom, it likely he’s paying him well above the $3 million that he rejected from Top Rank.
There had been reports that Shakur was going to receive $5 million to defend against Joe Cordina on October 12th before he suffered a hand injury. That’s enormous money for a non-popular champion to make making a voluntary defense against a fringe contender coming off a knockout loss.
