Boxing

Floyd Mayweather Tells Shakur Stevenson To 'Tighten Up' After Zepeda Fight

Floyd "Money" Mayweather sent a message to Shakur Stevenson after his most recent fight.
Grant Young|
Nov 6, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Former boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. sits court side during the second half between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Nov 6, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Former boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. sits court side during the second half between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images | Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson produced what many believe was the best performance of his career when he fought William Zepeda at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.

Despite looking close to securing a knockout at several points, Stevenson ultimately won a dominant unanimous decision verdict, with the three judges scoring the bout 118-110, 118-110, and 119-109.

About a day after the fight, Stevenson made an X post that showed a screenshot of him and boxing legend Floyd "Money" Mayweather speaking over what looked to be FaceTime after Shakur's fight. The post was captioned, "KOBE AND JORDAN 👑🐐🤔🤔" and went viral on the platform, now having amassed well over 700,000 views.

Stevenson has praised Mayweather many times throughout his career. And during his July 14 appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Shakur got honest about what the two spoke about during that FaceTime, along with sharing some critiques Floyd had for him.

"I'm Kobe, he's Jordan," Shakur said with a laugh when Helwani asked him who was who in that X post's caption. He then added, "People want me to say, 'Oh, I'm better than Floyd.' Bro, I watched this man's entire career. I watched every fight that he done had, so I'm good with whatever y'all say. If you compare me to somebody that great, it's just amazing for me."

When asked about what they said during that FaceTime, Shakur said, "Floyd called me, he was like, 'Yo, good job. You did good, you did real good. But it's some little things we gonna work on. We gonna tighten up on these little things.' He told me he want to get in the gym with me, so we gonna make it happen."

While Stevenson didn't reveal what exactly Floyd wanted to "tighten up" with him, the prospect of them working together must be terrifying for Shakur's future opponents.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.