Boxing

Shakur Stevenson Issues William Zepeda Fight Ultimatum

Shakur Stevenson has challenged William Zepeda to prove he's a real champion with fight ultimatum.
Apratim Banerjee|
IMAGO / Torsten Helmke

Shakur Stevenson vs William Zepeda is a fight that has been discussed for a while. Stevenson holds the WBC lightweight title and the WBC has ordered number one ranked Zepeda as the mandatory.

There have been disagreements regarding the fight purse for Stevenson, but it looks like the champ is ready for the challenge. The WBC gave a one-month negotiation deadline and if a decision isn't reached in that time, a purse bid will be held on May 6.

Stevenson recently appeared as a commentator for DAZN during the Jaron Ennis vs Eimantas Stanionis card. Speaking on the broadcast, he urged Zepeda to take the fight to prove that he's a real champion, not only an interim one. He said:

Honestly, Zepeda is a great fighter. I have nothing bad to say about him, but hopefully we can make this fight happen.

He added:

I know he wants to fight me. I want to fight him. If he doesn't fight me, he's the interim champion and he'll lose his interim title. So if you want to become the regular champion, the real champion of the weight class, you gotta to go through me.

When asked about a potential timeline for the fight, he said:

Anytime, whenever he's ready. I like July, August, September, whenever.

Shakur Stevenson is coming off a stoppage win against Josh Padley in his last outing. 33-0-0 William Zepeda, meanwhile, defeated Tevin Farmer via majority decision in his last outing in Marcg 2025.

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Apratim Banerjee
APRATIM BANERJEE

Apratim is a Boxing and Soccer reporter for On SI. He has been in the industry for five years, having also worked for The Sporting News, Sportskeeda, EssentiallySports, and more. After coming from an engineering background, he started pursuing a career in sports media. Apratim also holds an MSc. Sport Marketing degree from Loughborough University London and is a keen practitioner of social media and digital marketing. In his spare time, Apratim likes to play an array of sports and practice calisthenics. He is also an avid enthusiast of improving his martial arts skills.