Hearn Confident Shakur’s Brittle Hands Will Endure Zepeda’s Relentless Pressure

Promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t worried about whether WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson’s brittle hands will hold up under the nonstop pressure that is put on him by the relentless volume puncher William Zepeda on July 12th in Queens, New York.

Shakur Stevenson’s “Brittle Hands” Challenge

Hearn believes that Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) will fight through the pain if his glass hands shatter against Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) and continue to hit him until he scores a knockout.

Shakur has knocked out only two fighters since moving up to 135, Josh Padley and Shuichiro Yoshino. Those fighters resembled lower-tier fighters. It’s understandable why Stevenson’s promoters chose them over the dangerous contenders.

“Because of the style, I think he’s going to land a lot of punches on William Zepeda. He’s had a check and his hands are fine. But in a fight where you’re landing a lot of power punches against an aggressive fighter, [hand injury problems can occur],” said Eddie Hearn to Ring Magazine about the possibility of Shakur Stevenson’s fragile hands falling apart against William Zepeda.

What is Hearn talking about? Shakur is NOT “going to land a lot of punches” on Zepeda, because that would mean that he would need to be in the pocket. He physically can’t do that against a volume puncher like Zepeda, who will break him down to the body.

Zepeda’s Nonstop Pressure on Shakur

Even if Shakur’s glass hands stay together, he will be worn down by nonstop shots from Zepeda, particularly to the head and body. He’s stopped tougher fighters than Stevenson, and he’ll do the same to him if he tries to land many punches during the fight.

What we are going to see in this fight is Shakur running around, landing here and then, but staying on the move while the fans boo him out of the Loius Armstrong Stadium. I’ll be here to say, ‘I told you so.’ It’s too late for him to change his fighting style.

If Stevenson were going to change his approach to fighting by becoming a pocket fighter, he’d have done it by now, when he was booed out of the T-Mobile Arena in his fight against De Los Santos. He had the perfect opponents to experiment with a new style in his last two bouts against the light hitters Padley and Harutyunyan. Those guys had no pop in their punches, and we were well-vetted before being selected as Stevenson’s opponents.

Alalshikh’s Directive: No “Tom and Jerry”

Shakur has been a runner since his amateur days, and he can’t change his basic nature to become a pocket fighter. I predict he’s going to ignore Turki Alalshikh’s directive of no “Tom and Jerry” fights, show defiance to that rule by moving nonstop, making Zepeda chase him like a cat chasing a mouse, and try to win a decision in an amateur-like fight.

Hearn Predicts Stevenson Will Fight Through Pain

“I’m sure his hands will be knocked up [injured] in this fight. The one thing you can’t do is show any signs. You’ve just got to find a way through. We don’t see it as a problem. In Shakur’s mind, it’s by any means necessary, whatever it takes. He’s going to land a lot of leather on Zepeda. He can force that stoppage against a fantastic fighter,” said Hearn.

Stevenson vs. Zepeda: Low Punch Output?

We’re going to see a low punch output in the 100s for Shakur against Zepeda. What we saw from William Scull against Canelo Alvarez last May will be similar to how Stevenson will perform against Zepeda.

It was a mistake for Turki to put Stevenson-Zepeda in the co-feature slot. A better fight is the match between light heavyweight knockout artists, David Morrell and Imam Khataev. That by far is the best fight on the entire card, including the main event.