Shakur Stevenson must look exceptional in his headliner fight on PPV against Joe Cordina on October 12th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) is headlining for the first time in a $14.99 undercard event on pay-per-view at 27, and there is pressure on him to be entertaining and bring in a lot of PPV buys.
Questionable Matchmaking
This is the wrong opponent for Shakur to fight on PPV to create interest in a unification fight next year with Baltimore native Gervonta Davis. The opponent that Shakur needed to fight was #1 WBC William Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs), not former IBF super featherweight champion Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs), who is coming off an eighth-round knockout loss on May 18th against Anthony Cacace.
Zepeda’s trainer, Jay Najar, said in an interview this week that they wanted to fight Shakur in November, and they were surprised with the news that he’d signed to defend against Cordina on October 12th.
In hindsight, perhaps Shakur needed more time to prepare for the fight against Zepeda. That guy is on another level offensively and pressure-wise than anyone the New Jersey native has fought in the pros or the amateurs.
Shakur looked ready to have a nervous breakdown in his fight against Edwin De Los Santos last year on November 16th from the way he was stalking him around the ring, punching holes through him whenever he’d corner him. Zepeda is excellent at cutting off the ring against runners like Shakur, and he would get to him, but the outcome would not be pretty.
The numbers are significant because if this goes wrong, it could affect Shakur’s ability to get a favorable deal for a unification fight against WBA regular champ ‘Tank’ Davis in 2025.
Shakur and his new promoter, Eddie Hearn, aim for that fight next year, but they won’t get the purse split they’re hoping for if Stevenson’s fight with Cordina is a PPV disaster on October 12th, which many believe it will be.
Low-level Undercard Doesn’t Help
There’s no demand from U.S. fans in a Shakur vs. Cordina fight, and the undercard is totally slanted toward the UK public, not for the Americans. They don’t want to see these dull fights:
– Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Kamil Szceremeta
– Ben Whittaker vs. Liam Cameron
– Fabio Wardley vs. Frazer Clarke
– Jai Opetaia vs. Jack Massey
– Skye Nicholson vs. Raven Chapman
– Mohammed Alakel vs. Jose Gonzalez
Hearn may lose interest in Shakur and choose not to re-sign him after his fights against Cordina and Zepeda. The British promoter will know if Shakur is someone who can become a global star after these two contests.
Shakur’s Limitations Exposed
U.S. fans can already see that Shakur lacks the offensive talent and bravery to become even a local star, not a global superstar like Hearn is counting on.
It’s unclear whether Hearn really believes he can turn Shakur into a global star or if he’s just chirping these things, only wanting to build his stock up among the naive fans for the sake of a cash-out against Tank Davis.
Once Shakur gets the mega-payday fight against Gervonta that he’s been whining about and is evaporated instantly, Hearn will wash his hands of him and move on to another fighter he can pump up with fake hype.
Hearn has a vulture-like ability to spot fighters he can pump up for cash-outs. Edgar Berlanga is one example.
Hearn may push hard to make the Tank vs. Shakur fight happen next rather than after Stevenson faces Zepeda because he won’t want to take the chance of losing against the Mexican fighter. All that money Hearn paid Shakur will go down the drain without the big Tank Davis cash-out.
If I were Hearn, I would forget about the Zepeda fight and focus on making the Tank-Shakur unification happen next because Shakur won’t beat the Mexican fighter without controversy. Zepeda is all wrong for Shakur and would take the judges out of play for a fight between them.
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