Shakur Stevenson Disrupts Zepeda Presser

Shakur Stevenson ruined today’s final press conference by talking over his opponent, William Zepeda, and not letting him speak. He repeated the same things he’s been saying throughout the build-up to their lightweight title fight this Saturday, July 12th. A good muzzle would have come in handy today to pipe Shakur down.

Zepeda Silenced: Shakur’s Antics

Shakur (23-0, 11 KOs) sounded like a parrot, squawking the same “belt to a**” line that he said in every interview.

The moderator, Wade Plemons, lost full control of the press conference, allowing Shakur and Edgar Berlanga to talk over their opponents when it was their time to speak. You could see the look on Hamzah Sheeraz’s face that he wasn’t happy about not being able to talk when it was his time to discuss Saturday’s fight with Edgar.

Microphone Cut-Off Needed

Turki Alalshikh needs to set up future press conferences better and find a better moderator while he’s at it. Wade is useless at controlling the fighters and has no charisma.

Ideally, there should have been a microphone cut-off switch that Wade could have pushed to prevent those two from preventing their opponents from talking. In future press conferences, there needs to be one added because it’s unfair when fighters aren’t permitted to speak. It’s usually the B-side that gets this treatment.

Oscar De La Hoya: “He’s facing William Zepeda, who is a machine. He’s wanted this fight for a long time. This fight was supposed to happen several years ago. Zepeda is probably one of the most active fighters, throwing over 100 punches,” said promoter Oscar De La Hoya.

“It’s not going to be an easy fight. Shakur Stevenson has great skills like Floyd Mayweather, but when Mayweather fought Jose Luis Castillo, I think we’re going to see something similar. Turki wants to shrink the ring. I’m really looking forward to that. I have my guy winning, William Zepeda.”

Shakur Dares De La Hoya

Immediately after De La Hoya stopped talking, Shakur dared him to bet on the outcome. It was a real low-life move, done often by fighters who have nothing of real interest to hype a fight. So, they try to act bold by daring their opponents to bet. It’s been done too many times for it to be compelling.

Stevenson Needs PR Help

If Shakur can’t think of something to prepare him with talking points for press conferences and interviews, he needs to hire a good PR guy who can help him. It’s so boring listening to him fumble at coming up with interesting things to say. He’s as boring outside of the ring as he is inside it.

Shakur Stevenson: “I’ve been calling this dude for three years. Come Saturday night, I’m coming to beat his a**. I stand by that. I’m f*** hm up. They act like he’s a big threat. He’s #1 with all the sanctioning bodies.”