Promoter Eddie Hearn is not worried if the breakable hands of the WBC Shakur Stevenson master will keep the pressure without a break, which exerts the relentless Tom William Zepeda on him on July 12 at Queens, Recent York.
The challenge of Shakura Stevenson’s “shortbread”
Hearn believes that Stevenson (23-0, 11 KO) will fight by pain if his glass hands crash against Zepeda (33-0, 27 KO) and still hits him until he scores.
Shakur knocked out only two warriors from moving to 135, Josh Padley and Shuichiro Yoshino. These warriors resembled a lower level fighters. It is understandable why Stevenson’s promoters chose them on unsafe pretenders.
“Because of the style, I think he will land at William Zepeda. He had a check and his hands are fine. But in a fight in which you land a lot of power against an aggressive warrior, [hand injury problems can occur]- said Eddie Hearn Ring magazine About the possibility that Shakura Stevenson’s breakable hands fall apart against William Zezedie.
What does Hearn talk about? Shakur will not “land many blows” on Zepeda, because it would mean that it would have to be in his pocket. Physically, he can’t do it in relation to the volume, such as Zepeda, which will break him on the body.
Nonstop Zepeda pressure on Shakur
Even if Shakura’s glass hands remain together, they will be worn by carefree shots from Zepa, especially to the head and body. He stopped harder fighters than Stevenson, and he will do the same if he tries to land many blows during the fight.
What we will see in this fight is Shakur running, landing here and then, but will remain in motion while fans win him from the Loius Armstrong stadium. I will be here to say “I told you that.” It is too tardy to change his combat style.
If Stevenson changed his approach to the fight, becoming pocket money, he would do it until now when he was thrown out of the T-Mobile arena in the fight against de los Santos. He had perfect opponents to experiment with the recent style in his last two duels against Lightweight Hitters Padley and Harutyunyan. These guys did not have pop in their blows and we were well overtaken before we were chosen as Stevenson’s opponents.
Alalshikha Directive: No “Tom and Jerry”
Shakur was a runner from his amateur days and cannot change his basic nature to become a pocket warrior. I predict that he will ignore the Turk’s directive Alalshikha regarding the fighting of “Tom and Jerry”, shows the rebellion of this principle, moving all the time, making Zepeda chas him like a cat chasing the mouse and try to win the decision in the fight for amateur.
Hearn predicts that Stevenson will fight by pain
“I’m sure his hands will be tossed [injured] In this fight. One thing you can’t do is show any signs. You just have to find the way. We don’t consider it a problem. In Shakura’s mind it is necessary in any way, whatever you need. Will land a lot of skin on Zepeda. He can force this detention to a fantastic warrior – said Hearn.
Stevenson vs. Zepeda: Low exit?
We will see a low way to hundreds for Shakur against Zepeda. What we saw from William Scull against Canelo Alvarez in May will be similar to how Stevenson will work against Zepeda.
Turk’s mistake was placing Stevenson-Zepeda in the coefficient nest. A better fight is a match between delicate knockout artists, David Morrell and Imam Khataev. This is by far the best fight on the whole card, including the main event.
Top trainer and former world champion Robert Garcia has considered the outcome of a fantasy showdown between Terence Crawford and Manny Pacquiao.
The two generational greats reportedly came close to squaring off in 2021, back when Crawford was the WBO welterweight champion and ‘Pac Man’ held the WBA title.
Their unification match never materialised, though, as Pacquiao was scheduled to face Errol Spence Jr before ‘The Truth’ pulled out with a torn retina.
Instead, the Filipino legend ended up losing his WBA title to Yordenis Ugas at a stage when, while still serviceable, he was quite clearly past his best.
Crawford, meanwhile, was hitting top form around this time, just a few fights away from producing arguably a career-best performance against Spence.
He did, of course, manage to stop his welterweight rival in nine rounds, before moving up to 168lbs and becoming a three-division undisputed champion by dethroning Canelo Alvarez last September.
Based on those two performances, coach Garcia has told ESNEWS that he would favour ‘Bud’ to defeat even a prime version of Pacquiao.
“The Crawford that beat Spence – and the Crawford that beat Canelo – would probably beat Manny.”
While Crawford’s prime almost certainly came during his run of eight stoppages at welterweight, it is harder to pinpoint when Pacquiao ultimately reached his peak.
In terms of his most destructive performance at world level, however, many will point towards his second-round finish over Ricky Hatton in 2009.
While facing the ‘Hitman’ at 140lbs, Pacquiao would cement himself as a formidable welterweight champion soon after, dethroning Miguel Cotto with a 12th-round stoppage for the WBO title.
Former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk has been left between a rock and a hard place afterhis promotional contract with Zuffa Boxing has been terminated.
The Ukrainian dethroned long-reigning light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in 2018, scoring an 11th-round stoppage that left his opponent with a brain injury.
Gvozdyk then made a WBC title defence before losing to Artur Beterbievwho extended his ruthless surge with a 10th-round finish in their 2019 encounter.
Since that defeat, ‘The Nail’ suffered a unanimous decision loss to David Benavidez in 2024, before entering a perceived 50/50 contest against Radivoje ‘Hot Rod’ Kalajdzic in February.
With both making their Zuffa debut, the two veterans delivered a thrilling battle in which Gvozdyk scored two knockdowns and had built a sizable lead.
In round seven, though, the 39-year-old found himself on the canvas and was ultimately stopped on his feet after getting dropped a second time.
Given his overall performance, one would suspect he had done enough to justify another meaningful opportunity, yet Gvozdyk has since told vRINGe that he will no longer be fighting under the Zuffa banner.
“They terminated the contract in February after a loss. That is, every promoter has the option that if a boxer loses, they have the right to terminate the contract. That’s exactly what they did. After the fight, everyone was saying how great it was. That everything was great. I rested. I started preparing as planned – somewhere around May. And then, around April, they told me I’d received an email terminating the contract.”
This is because his contract has been terminated, while Kalajdzic’s next outing with Dana White’s promotional outfit is confirmed for September 26 against Craig Richards.
As for Gvozdyk, it is difficult to predict what will come next but, at the age of 39, one would suspect that he is close to hanging up the gloves.
Still, he could hardly have been happy to part ways with Zuffa, which also terminated its contract with Robert Meriwether following his defeat to Tony Hirsch Jr in April.
Former British champion and Olympic bronze medallist David Price has assessed whether his countryman, Conor Bennpossesses the necessary hand speed to defeat Ryan Garcia.
The two welterweights will square off at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on September 12, with Garcia making a first defence of his WBC world title.
It was arguably a career-best performance that saw him dethrone Mario Barrios in February, scoring a first-round knockdown before winning a wide unanimous decision.
But despite coming off this dominant display, Garcia was far less impressive when he returned from a year-long doping ban and lost on points to Rolando Romero in May 2025.
Still, many would argue that the 28-year-old has shown signs of world-class quality, while Benn remains glaringly unproven at the top level.
The 29-year-old has also not fought at 147lbs since 2022, with his last two outings resulting in unanimous decision victories over faded versions of Chris Eubank Jr and Regis Prograis.
Against Eubank, in particular, Benn’s speed seemed a key factor in their two middleweight encounters last year, despite him suffering a points defeat the first time around.
As he approaches this welterweight contest against Garcia, though, former heavyweight contender Price has told The Smith Brothers that he sees Benn contending with an unfamiliar disadvantage.
“I think I [favour Garcia]. Conor Benn’s got great hand speed, but I think [Garcia’s] hand speed could make the difference in the fight.”
Like Garcia, Benn tested positive for a banned substance – clomifene – and was eventually removed from his cancelled 2022 encounter with Eubank.
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