SHAKUR Stevenson will defend his WBC lightweight title against Interim champion William Zepeda on July 12 in New York. It’s a contest that has been mooted for some time between the unbeaten pair. The date and venue were officially confirmed last night.
Currently 23-0 (11 KOs), this will be Stevenson’s third defence of a title he picked up by beating Edwin De Los Santos at the end of 2023. Inactivity began to set in as Stevenson made his next defence in July 2024, beating Artem Harutyunyan over 12 rounds.
Expected to defend against Floyd Schofield in Riyadh earlier this year, when Schofield pulled out, Stevenson instead defeated gutsy late-notice foe Josh Padley in nine rounds on the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch undercard.
Now he meets Mexico’s Zepeda, 33-0 (27 KOs), who has been dealing with own ring troubles, needing 20 rounds to scrape past veteran Tevin Farmer. Zepeda first defeated the Philly southpaw by split decision in November 2024 on a ‘Latino Night’ card in Riyadh Season.
Farmer dropped Zepeda in that contest and caused a variety of stylistic issues, which does not bode well for this contest, as Stevenson brings similar problems at a higher level. Zepeda needed another 10 rounds to see off Tevin in a rematch last month, prevailing this time by majority verdict.
Having been mysteriously elevated in the WBA rankings, it appeared briefly that William would pursue a different path. Now he meets Shakur as anticipated. Shakur had shown signs of frustration recently with his fighting situation, but a conciliatory tweet suggested all had been cleared up, leading to this fight announcement.
