William Zepeda’s coach, Jay Najar, was stunned that WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson selected to combat #13 Joe Cordina on October twelfth moderately than face them in November.
Najar says they have been unaware that Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) modified his thoughts about combating the unbeaten #1-ranked 135-lb contender Zepeda (31-0, 27 KO), preferring as a substitute to face the 32-year-old former IBF tremendous featherweight champion Cordina on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol on the Kingdom Enviornment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Zepeda: The Harmful Third Rail
What Najar doesn’t say is whether or not he suspects Shakur will keep away from Zepeda within the first half of 2025 as effectively. The Mexican star is all improper for the light-hitting defensive artist Shakur and will spoil his new promoter Eddie Hearn’s plans to match him in opposition to Gervonta Davis subsequent summer season.
If Shakur is being steered across the harmful William Zepeda proper now, it’s solely apparent that he might be prevented just like the plague within the first quarter of 2025.
Zepeda is the equal of the electrified third rail of a practice system and extremely harmful for Shakur together with his ambitions of a mega-fight in opposition to Tank Davis. The Mexican star, Zepeda, would chase Shakur down and reap havoc on him and his promoter Hearn’s desires of an enormous cash combat in opposition to Tank Davis.
Shakur is reportedly being paid $5 million to headline the undercard portion of the Beterbiev-Bivol card dwell on DAZN PPV in his first combat for promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing firm. Hearn selected one in every of his personal Matchroom fighters, Cordina, who’s down in his luck after being destroyed in eight rounds by Anthony Cacace on Could 18th and badly wants a pick-me-up proper now.
Shakur’s Calculated Transfer
Some imagine that Hearn’s alternative of Cordina as Shakur’s opponent is a intelligent transfer to rebuild Stevenson and additional his purpose of constructing him a “world famous person,” even when he’s not for actual. In different phrases, Hearn makes Shakur look higher than he’s by constructing a pretend “world famous person” to assist make a combat between him and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis right into a monster on PPV in 2025.
“William simply had his child yesterday; we knew that was coming, so we requested for November [to challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur]. We didn’t know why [Shakur chose to fight Joe Cordina]. Swiftly, he was combating a unique fighter. We have been keen to combat in November.,” mentioned Nakar to Thaboxingvoice.
