WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson predicts that #1-ranked William Zepeda will take his “first L” in February when the 2 battle in Shakur’s debut together with his new promoters at Matchroom.
There’s a great opportunity that Zepeda will defeat Shakur and make an instance of him by chasing him. Zepeda cuts off the ring nicely and is tough to keep away from with motion. Shakur doesn’t possess the ability or offensive abilities to face and struggle a man like Zepeda. It’s not potential.
Stevenson might want to maintain his floor and really struggle to defeat Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs), who shall be placing extra warmth on him than anybody he has ever fought earlier than. He received’t get one other low cost win primarily based on utilizing his hit-and-run model that we noticed on show in opposition to Edwin De Los Santos.
De Los Santos is the hardest struggle Shakur has had throughout his profession, and he got here near dropping to him final November.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has praised Shakur, saying that he’s a future “world celebrity” and is shocked that he hasn’t already develop into a star. Hearn signed Shakur to a two-fight deal to get most worth.
That’s the best option to escape from what may very well be a nightmare if Shakur loses one or each fights or if he’s booed out of the world. Hearn can be caught with an issue if Stevenson loses or continues to placed on non-entertaining fights like he’s been doing by way of most of his seven-year profession.
The primary struggle can be in opposition to Zepeda and the second probably in opposition to Gervonta Davis. If Shakur loses to Zepeda, there’s an excellent probability that the 2 will meet in a rematch.
This may very well be PPV, which is able to upset some followers, but it surely may very well be price it to see how the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) offers with simply probably the most harmful puncher of his seven-year skilled profession.
Shakur turned down a five-fight, $15 million deal to re-sign with High Rank. For Hearn to signal Shakur to Matchroom, it possible he’s paying him nicely above the $3 million that he rejected from High Rank.
There had been studies that Shakur was going to obtain $5 million to defend in opposition to Joe Cordina on October twelfth earlier than he suffered a hand harm. That’s huge cash for a non-popular champion to make making a voluntary protection in opposition to a fringe contender coming off a knockout loss.
February Zepeda takes his first L!! https://t.co/EOzyJxgETr
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) September 29, 2024
