Stevenson-Zepeda Gets Main Event Treatment All Week, But Berlanga-Sheeraz Closes the Show

Ring Magazine announced today that there will be two co-feature bouts, with Edgar Berlanga vs. Hamzah Sheeraz and Shakur Stevenson vs. William Zepeda on July 12th in New York City. Here’s the interesting part: Shakur-Zepeda will be “treated as the main event” the week of the fight, but on fight night, Berlanga-Sheeraz will be the headliner.

Ring Magazine, choosing to break from the typical structure of a boxing event, could confuse fans, who would expect Shakur’s fight with Zepeda to be the main event if it’s treated as that during the week of the fight.

The Switch

There aren’t a lot of fans who want to see super middleweights Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) and Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) in the main event. Neither of them has any significant wins in their careers, and are seen as fake fighters created for marketing purposes.

“July 12 in New York City will feature co-main events: Edgar Berlanga-Hamzah Sheeraz and Shakur Stevenson-William Zepeda. Stevenson-Zepeda will be treated as the main event during fight week; the boxers will enter last for all festivities. On fight night, Berlanga and Sheeraz will close the show,” said Ring Magazine on X.

Labeling both fights as co-main events doesn’t make much sense when there’s going to be one fight, the inferior one between Berlanga and Sheeraz, the main event treatment on fight night, it’s not going to please fans.

Marketing Strategy?

From a promotional standpoint, if the idea is to lure fans into purchasing the event on DAZN PPV, it makes sense to treat the Stevenson vs. Zepeda fight as the main event during the week of the fight.

Americans are more likely to order it on PPV if they think that’s the main event, rather than British fighter Sheeraz and the recently beaten New Yorker Berlanga. If the idea is to confuse fans into purchasing the card, it makes sense to give them a false picture of Shakur-Zepeda being the main event so that they’ll purchase the card.

It could work well, because fans don’t want to see Berlanga-Sheeraz because they’re arguably the two least talented fighters on the entire card. All the other fighters on the card have much more ability than Berlanga and Sheeraz.