De La Hoya’s Comments On Shakur Backfire

Oscar De La Hoya believes Gervonta Davis would stop Shakur Stevenson, even if his own fighter William Zepeda respected Shakur’s power.

The Saudis are keen on making the Tank-Shakur fight following Stevenson’s win over William Zepeda in a defense of his WBC Lightweight Title. Shakur showed he could neutralize a power puncher, as Zepeda is a KO artist who was 32-0 (27 KOs) when they boxed. And yet, Shakur was hurt after a Zepeda jab rocked him on the ropes in the early part of the fight. A similar shot from Tank Davis could prove problematic. However, Davis also faces questions over his form, having boxed to a controversial majority draw against Lamont Roach Jr. in his last fight. De La Hoya, though, still backed Tank to win.

“They are different styles, obviously. Shakur fights on his backfoot more, fights tall, throws one, two punches. I think ‘Tank’ Davis takes more risk. He goes forward a little more. He has more power. I’m gonna pick ‘Tank’ by brutal knockout,” De La Hoya said 

Zepeda Reacts

Nevertheless, Oscar’s fighter Zepeda’s following comments suggest otherwise. Zepeda lost a one-sided unanimous decision: 118-110, 118-110, and 119-109. Stevenson stood in the pocket and traded with him, blocking the majority of his shots. Shakur was also able to land to keep Zepeda at bay, preventing the Mexican from walking him down. This is despite Shakur being vocal about his hand problems in various other fights.

The CompuBox numbers showed the following: Zepeda averaged 82 punches thrown and 23 landed. While it was the most anyone had landed on Stevenson, whose previous 11 opponents averaged just 5.4 connects per round, it was not enough. After round 4, Stevenson averaged 47 punches thrown and 25 landed per round. He connected with 56% of his power shots and landed 56 more punches. Zepeda admitted that he respected Shakur, having shared 12 rounds with him. 

“He has good, solid power that kept me at a distance. If he didn’t have any hand problems, he would be a problem a little bit more but he has good above above-average power. Good sting. I just gotta keep working,” Zepeda stated