Shakur Stevenson says he’s going to “shine” on Saturday night in his defense of his WBC lightweight title against William Zepeda at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
Shakur’s Movement Strategy
Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) states he’s going to “Fight my fight,” which sounds like code for, ‘I’m going to be in full Jerry mode, making Tom chase me around the ring all night.’
Turki Alalshikh is hoping Shakur and the other fighters on the card don’t turn their fights into cat-and-mouse type of affairs like we saw with the Times Square card last May. But what he fails to understand is that fighters like Shakur can’t change their Jerry-like style, especially against a volume puncher like Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs).
Is Shakur Stevenson Overhyped?
“I know I’m going to shine on Saturday night. The bigger the moment, the more I step up. That’s what I plan to do on Saturday night,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fight Hub TV about his fight against William Zepeda. “A lot of people think it’s an easy fight. I don’t think it will. It probably will be one of my toughest fights.”
Shakur could fold like previous movers that Zepeda mowed down, fighters like Hector Tanajara and Mercito Gesta. Stevenson is not as tough as Rene Alvarez and doesn’t have an output like him to stand his ground against Stevenson. There would be a lot of ‘I told you so’s’ by people if Zepeda knocks out Shakur. They’ll come out of the woodwork in droves, saying they knew he was a hype job from the jump.
That’s why he chose to fight Josh Padley, Artem Harutyunyan, and Shuichiro Yoshino. If Shakur was the real deal, why was he matched against those fighters? It’s called pulling the wool over the eyes of gullible fans, who have been looking for the next Mayweather. They thought they had one with Devin Haney, but he proved to be fake. Now, they believe naively that Shakur is the guy.
“I know William Zepeda is going to throw a lot of punches, and he’s going to put up his best fight. I’m going to make sure I come out victorious. That’s how I am. People that try to change me, that s*** isn’t going to work,” said Stevenson when he moved up to lightweight. It was to keep Shakur winning so he could bring in money for himself and whatever lucky promoter had him signed.
That last comment by Shakur is clearly in reference to Turki Alalshikh’s directive of no longer wanting Tom and Jerry fights for his events. Stevenson is letting him and the fans know he won’t change his defensive, hit-and-not-get-hit style of fighting. He has no real choice.
Zepeda’s Punching Volume Threat
Stevenson can’t fight in the pocket against fighters like Zepeda without getting knocked out like other fighters he’s stopped. He doesn’t possess the power or the defensive capability of blocking 100+ punches being thrown at him per round by Zepeda. Shakur’s primary line of defense is his movement. In the pocket, he gets hit, as we saw in his fights against Josh Padley and Artem Harutyunyan.
Although Shakur is known for his cat-like reflexes, he’s vulnerable to the body. His hand speed isn’t among the best at lightweight. We saw that he was slower than Edwin De Los Santos and was forced to move because he was getting hit hard when he stood his ground.