The fight with William Zepeda will be tough but I will win – Shakur Stevenson
An assertive Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) challenged De La Hoya to place a bet with him. De La Hoya declined the offer.
“You don’t have enough money,” De La Hoya told him. “What am I gonna do?”
Stevenson insisted until “The Golden Boy” told him, “I don’t bet. I’m not a betting man.”
If Zepeda pulls off what would be considered a significant upset, ambitious bettors will get a great return on their wagers. Stevenson suggested they shouldn’t bother wasting their money, even on a dangerous pressure fighter who rarely stops throwing punches.
“These guys act like this guy’s a threat,” Stevenson said, “he’s a big monster, he was number one in all the sanctioning bodies. So, if he this killer, I wanna see him on Saturday. That’s what I wanna see.”
Zepeda, 29, can’t wait to test himself against an intelligent technician commonly considered one of boxing’s best defensive fighters. He intends to force Stevenson, 28, into the type of action-packed dogfight that the 2016 Olympic silver medalist managed to avoid in his first 23 professional appearances.
“Shakur’s gonna bring his style that is very elusive,” Zepeda said. “And we’ve had a fight plan that prepares me to be able to neutralize that. I think we’ve done a great job and it’s gonna be a great fight.”
The mild-mannered Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) and his handlers are thankful that this fight will finally happen.
Jaime Picos, Zepeda’s manager, told The Ring that he was forced to turn down a shot at Stevenson’s title on Feb. 22 after a left hand injury during his hard-fought, 10-round split decision victory over Tevin Farmer on Nov, 16 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Zepeda defeated Farmer by majority decision in their rematch March 29 at Poliforum Benito Juarez in Cancun, Mexico. The WBC interim lightweight champion didn’t want to fight him a second time, which was why he and his team were more forceful with Golden Boy Promotions about facing Stevenson next.
“We knew as a team there were no more risks to take,” Jay ‘Panda’ Najar, Zepeda’s trainer, told The Ring. “When they asked us to do the rematch with Tevin, [Zepeda] said, ‘Why? There’s no sense in me taking the rematch. I want Shakur Stevenson. There’s no other fight. Either Shakur or Gervonta Davis.
‘Those are the only two fights that I want.’ And so, as a trainer and manager my job is to go and speak to [Golden Boy president] Eric Gomez, Oscar and Mr. Jaime Picos, William’s manager. We took it to task to say this is the fight that we wanted. We said, ‘We will not take another fight, unless it’s Shakur Stevenson.'”
Stevenson-Zepeda will be the penultimate fight DAZN offers as part of The Ring’s pay-per-view show at one of the venues where the U.S. Open tennis tournament is held each summer. DAZN’s coverage of the Berlanga-Sheeraz undercard is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET in the United States ($59.99) and 10 p.m. BST in the United Kingdom (£24.99).
credit: Ringmagazine