Promoter Oscar De La Hoya has considerations about Shakur Stevenson’s capacity to promote tickets forward of a possible combat in opposition to challenger William Zepeda.
Shakur’s Model: A Flip-Off for Followers
De La Hoya insists he’ll make the combat between them, however he has doubts in regards to the WBC light-weight champion Shakur’s marketability. He’s not common exterior the nerdy ultra-hardcore crowd who take pleasure in his retro defensive model.
Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) is ranked #1 with the WBC, and he’s essentially the most logical challenger to face Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) if he can’t land the unification match that he’s been begging for in opposition to WBA champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Nonetheless, De La Hoya needs to make sure the combat is worth it for the knockout artist Zepeda earlier than he pulls the set off.
Shakur’s final two fights at 135 have been poorly acquired by followers, who criticized him on social media. Final November, he was booed out of the T-Cell Area for working all night time in opposition to Edwin De Los Santos.
The three fights that Shakur has had since shifting as much as light-weight in 2023 have proven that he’s not bodily or mentally designed to combat on this division. He’s not comfy with the ability of the fighters and takes off like a bat out of hell when met with fireplace from his opposition.
“I wish to make that combat. Shakur, skill-wise, might be the most effective fighter on the planet at present. However he has to have the ability to promote tickets. It can occur. I’ll make that combat,” stated promoter Oscar De La Hoya to the Fighthype YouTube channel about his considerations about Shakur Stevenson’s capacity to promote tickets forward of a combat in opposition to William Zepeda.
De La Hoya goes a little bit overboard along with his false flattery of Shakur as a result of he’s not the “finest fighter on the planet” skill-wise. If you’re afraid of exchanges, as Shakur is, you may’t be the “finest” of something.
The ‘Fencing’ Model: Unfit for Trendy Boxing
He’s proven that he’s incapable of standing within the pocket in opposition to his opponents at light-weight and treats his fights like fencing matches. Boxing isn’t fencing, and that’s the rationale why Shakur can’t promote tickets.
He’s treating his fights like he’s within the sport of fencing with a sword, and that model doesn’t work with U.S. followers on this period. If there was a working time machine, you would put Shakur on it and ship him on a one-way journey again to the Nineties so he might compete with boring fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
He’d slot in higher again then when followers appreciated that combating model. Boxing had much less competitors than different sources of leisure again then, however issues are totally different now. You bought to entertain, and Shakur can’t do this.
