Shakur Stevenson needs to go straight right into a battle towards his #1 WBC challenger, William Zepeda, when he returns to the ring from his surgically repaired injured hand in February or March 2025.
Promoter Eddie Hearn sounded iffy about whether or not WBC light-weight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) will go straight right into a battle towards Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) or take one other battle earlier than that. He says his plans are nonetheless the identical for Shakur about wanting him to take one or two fights earlier than going through Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in a mega-fight in 2025.
Zepeda will battle Tevin Farmer in a Riyadh Season occasion on November sixteenth at The Venue in Saudi Arabia. It’s a part of the Latino Evening occasion. It’ll be a tune-up battle for Zepeda towards a slick boxer who helps him put together for the motion that Shakur will use once they battle subsequent 12 months.
“We’d nonetheless prefer to make that battle [Joe Cordina], however the WBC has ordered that battle with [William] Zepeda. He fights in November. So, it’s fairly probably that he’ll [Shakur] will go straight into that battle,” stated Eddie Hearn to Battle Hub TV about what Shakur Stevenson’s plans are for his subsequent battle when he returns from his injured hand in 2025.
That’s a troublesome matchup for Shakur to go straight right into a battle towards Zepeda, coming off a hand damage and two poor performances towards Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos. If issues don’t go proper for Shakur towards Zepeda, Hearn shall be dumped on by the boxing public for permitting Stevenson to take the Zepeda battle after coming off a hand damage.
“I consider so,” stated Hearn when requested if Shakur’s hand damage resulted from sparring. “Shakur was trying ahead to that battle and transferring on to Zepeda. It’s an unlucky damage, however now he’s had the operation. Shakur is 27-years-old, and a three-division world champion. It’s a small bump within the street.”
If Hearn does give Shakur a tune-up first, he must match him towards somebody who has an analogous type as Zepeda to assist him put together. Cordina was ineffective for that objective.
What Shakur wants is somebody like Oscar Duarte or Edwin De Los Santos. Both of these guys could be excellent for Shakur to prepare for Zepeda. The draw back of Shakur preventing a strain fighter like Duarte or De Los Santos first is that he’ll probably run from them as a result of he lacks the punching energy and bodily instruments to battle within the pocket towards robust fighters who hit laborious.
“The plan is to get him again to full well being and goal that return for February or March 2025,” stated Hearn. “The plan for me was after these two fights [Cordina and Zepeda] was to battle Gervonta Davis. That also stays the identical, whether or not that’s one battle or two fights.”
Hearn appears like he needs to gamble with Shakur by matching him towards Zepeda first and hopes that he’ll come by means of that match to face Tank Davis after that. Sadly, there’s a good chance Shakur will lose to Zepeda by knockout.
“In the event you take a look at the massive mega-fights for Gervonta Davis, it’s Shakur Stevenson,” stated Hearn.
