Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has invited WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson to name him to allow them to begin getting ready for a combat towards #1 William Zepeda.
(Credit score: Golden Boy Promotions/ Cris Esqueda)
De La Hoya’s Open Invitation
Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) made fast work of his opponent final Saturday evening, stopping Giovanni Cabrera (22-2, 7 KOs) within the third spherical with a physique shot in the primary occasion on DAZN on the Toyota Middle in Ontario, California.
With that win behind Zepeda, De La Hoya needs him to combat for a world title subsequent towards Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) or WBO light-weight champion Denys Berinchyk later this 12 months. De La Hoya feels the combat with Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) will probably be simpler, however he’s open to negotiating with Shakur.
Shakur’s Potential Vulnerability
Shakur’s issues with Artem Harutyunyan final Saturday evening highlighted his points along with his accepting De La Hoya’s supply to face Zepeda, who is sort of a punching machine as soon as he cranks up his offense.
Stevenson has little offensive capacity, and that’s been an issue since his beginner days. He’s glorious at defending towards punches, however he has little or no offensive capabilities past touchdown pecking pictures to attempt to win rounds in an beginner point-scoring means.
Within the Cabrera combat, Zepeda began sluggish, throwing a number of punches in rounds one and two. Nonetheless, within the third, Zepeda got here out trying like one other particular person, throwing an avalanche of punches that Cabrera had no hopes of blocking or matching.
Shakur couldn’t take care of a fighter like Zepeda, and his motion wouldn’t work as a result of William’s physique punching would sluggish his capacity to maneuver.
De La Hoya’s Confidence in Zepeda
“He made an announcement. That’s the underside line,” Oscar De La Hoya advised the media about William Zepeda’s win over Giovanni Cabrera final Saturday. “Once you’re in that place. Once you’re the #1 contender in each group, it’s important to make an announcement like that, and that’s precisely what he did.
“He’s [Cabrera] very awkward as we noticed with [Isaac] Pitbull [Cruz] the place he took him the space. I believe this win for Zepeda was glorious and now we go for the world title.
“Shakur, give me a name. I might like to make a name with you,” mentioned De La Hoya about his curiosity in organising a combat between WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda.
“He made an announcement. Once you’re the #1 contender in each group, it’s important to make an announcement like that, and that’s precisely what he did,” mentioned De La Hoya about Zepeda’s third-round physique shot knockout win over Cabrera.
