Eddie Hearn says he hopes Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya will conform to his facet of the deal for his fighter #1 ranked William Zepeda to problem WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson on February twenty second.
Hearn and Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) are each in a rush to make the combat with Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs), feeling prefer it’s a sure-thing win. It’s a nasty fashion matchup for Shakur, who can’t punch and has been nervous and skittish since transferring as much as 135 in 2023. Zepeda confirmed what he would do to Shakur with a beating he inflicted on 34-year-old Tevin Farmer final Saturday night time at Latino Evening in Riyadh.
Hearn remains to be enchanted with Shakur and hasn’t seen his limitations in his sport but. These might be uncovered if the Zepeda combat comes off, and Hearn will doubtless shortly lose curiosity in Shakur and never re-sign him to a brand new contract with Matchroom.
A Selection of Champions for Zepeda
Zepeda hasn’t mentioned whether or not he’ll take the combat with Shakur. After Zepeda’s victory over Farmer final Saturday, he mentioned within the post-fight interview that his identify is “being mentioned by the champions” and that he would see which one affords one of the best deal.
Though Zepeda did say he would “probably” be preventing Shakur subsequent, he didn’t affirm that he would 100% be his subsequent opponent. Zepeda is within the captain’s seat, the driving force, who can choose and select no matter champion he needs. Together with his recognition, he’s not restricted to preventing simply Shakur.
What Zepeda is clearly ready on is to see if the face of boxing, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, and PBC select to make the combat with him subsequent. If they provide Zepeda a profitable deal, he’ll look forward to Tank to defend towards Lamont Roach on March 1st and face him in the summertime.
That combat pays far more than a conflict towards Shakur until His Excellency Turki Alalshikh needs to finance the combat with Stevenson. If not, Zepeda can make more cash preventing Tank and getting a lower of the PPV upside.
“We’ve agreed from our side that Shakur should fight Zepeda with His Excellency. That’s a great fight,” mentioned Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing. “Folks say he [Zepeda] under-performed towards Tevin Farmer. Tevin could be very difficult, an excellent fighter, and possibly a troublesome fashion for Zepeda.
“That’ll assist him within the build-up for him to combat Shakur Stevenson, however with all respect to Tevin, Shakur is on one other degree, and let’s simply hope that De La Hoya agrees to his finish of the deal and makes the Zepeda combat. I’m actually going to get pleasure from sitting subsequent to him for that combat.
“What you’re going to see is one of the greater pound-for-pound fighters of our generation, a three-division world champion, 27-year-old Shakur Stevenson, put on a masterclass against Zepeda. You’re going to see something very special,” mentioned Hearn.
