Will Eddie Hearn deliver the Zepeda fight for Shakur?

Eddie Hearn's two-fight deal with Shakur Stevenson will see him face non-Matchroom fighter William Zepeda in his second fight in early 2025.

Shakur's first fight under his two-fight contract with Matchroom is against Joe Cordina, a British fighter who is not popular in the U.S. and is fresh off a knockout loss. This fight does more harm than good to Shakur's marketability.

Fight the Zepeda battle

The question is whether Hearn will deliver the Golden Boy-promoted Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) because he will have to work with promoter Oscar De La Hoya to make that happen.

De La Hoya recently complained that WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) lacks the “confidence” to fight in an entertaining way and be such a marketable fighter.

Despite not holding a title, Zepeda is a more popular fighter than Shakur and he doesn't need him. It's the other way around. Zepeda is the No. 1 lightweight contender with all sanctioning bodies and would make more money fighting WBA “regular” champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Shakur left Top Rank because they couldn't give him the big fights, but if Hearn can't do that either, he could end up in the same boat.

“Shakur sees this [Jaron Ennis’ rollout with Eddie Hearn] and says: “I want that kind of attention. I didn't get that at Top Rank,” boxing expert Chris Algieri told YouTube channel Probox TV about the reasons why Shakur Stevenson signed with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom.

Will history repeat itself?

Welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis has fought just once since signing with Hearn: against 36-year-old David Avanesyan. If Hearn can't deliver Boots the championship shot at 147, his next fight could be against Karen Chukhadzhian. Whether Hearn can work his magic on Boots or Shakur is questionable, as dealing with different promoters and networks isn't as easy as he thinks.

Plus, when you have fighters like Boots that are too good, other fighters and promoters don't want to face him. In Shakur's case, he's a boring runner who isn't an attraction. There's nothing for the fighters to gain by facing Shakur, especially when they could potentially lose a decision to a guy who punches and runs all night.

Shakur naively believes that he will suddenly be given fights that have never been seen before at Top Rank. But that doesn't have to be the case.

“Can he [Hearn] get the fights that really matter? The fights that Top Rank couldn't get because that was Shakur's biggest criticism,” Algieri said. “Can Eddie get him the big fights, or was Eddie just the guy who talked at the negotiating table so everyone thought they could get the big fights?”

Hearn's handling of Andrade's career

If Hearn can't arrange a fight with Zepeda for Shakur in early 2025, it will be interesting to see who he gets. It would look bad if it was another British fighter that American fans don't know. Hearn would face Shakur like he did with Demetrius Andrade when he was with Matchroom.

Instead of arranging fights with the killers at 154 to increase Andrade's popularity, Hearn had him face Luke Keeler, Maciel Sulecki, Liam Williams and Jason Quigley, then wondered why Andrade's popularity wasn't increasing.

“The two-way deal that exists [for Shakur with Matchroom]. The second fight is with Zepeda, who is with Golden Boy,” said Algieri. “Eddie and Golden Boy, I don't know how many fights they have had in the last few years. But Golden Boy and Bob [Arum] and Bob and Oscar [De La Hoya] fight battles.

“You can do some crossover fights. It's probably easier to pull that fight off there. But when you have fighters in opposite promotional situations, it's difficult to pull off those fights. Is Eddie the guy that can jump through the ranks?” Algieri said.

Hearn could potentially arrange a fight with Zepeda for Shakur if he offers the right deal, but that's not a sure thing. If he tries to negotiate a deal for Shakur to fight Tank Davis next year, he's going to have problems. That probably won't happen without Shakur signing with PBC.

Crossing borders

“To a certain extent he is, because now we're talking about Turki Alalshikh, and it seems that Eddie has a very close connection with Turki and they do a lot of fights together. So you can potentially get that crossover appeal,” Algieri said.

Turki can definitely help Hearn get the fight against Zepeda, but probably not Tank Davis if PBC isn't in. I don't know if Tank is excited about fighting Shakur, especially if he looks bad against Zepeda and Cordina.

“It was announced a few days ago that Shakur is fighting Cordina. Cordina is with Eddie. So it kind of makes sense that Shakur is signing with Eddie now. He has a two-fight contract. We'll see if Eddie can actually deliver what was promised,” Algieri said. “Let's see what Eddie can deliver, because he certainly hasn't with Jaron Ennis yet.”