George Kambosos Jnr has described a possible showdown between Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda as a fight for the fans.
Stevenson, 27, who holds a lightweight title, could defend his belt against mandatory challenger Zepeda, 28, who became an interim titleholder last Saturday. Both fighters have expressed interest in facing one another.
According to Kambosos, a former unified 135-pound belt holder, the fight must happen to drive interest in the division.
“I think so. I think they gotta fight,” Kambosos told Fight Hype. “Why not? Zepeda is interim WBC champ. Shakur wants it, and he’s the full WBC world champion. The fans wanna see it. The crowd wanna see it. Why not? Why hide and try to go a different way and do this and do that? Do the Kambosos and fight the best fighters in the world.”
Zepeda, 32-0 (27 KOs), was a close split decision winner over Tevin Farmer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last Saturday, with judges scoring the bout 95-94, 94-95 and 95-94. Zepeda got the first real test of his career in the fight, hitting the canvas for the first time in his career.
Kambosos hailed Farmer for proving his mettle against Zepeda with a tremendous performance.
“Farmer looked tremendous,” he said. “Yeah, he took him down and showed his defense. Farmer is a helluva fighter, and again, Zepeda’s got that work rate where he throws so many punches and puts his head and sits on you.
“So, yes, did [Farmer] exploit him a little bit? Did he show weaknesses and holes? Is it better? Yeah.”
When asked if he feels Stevenson has faced a worthy opponent yet, Kambosos said, “He’s done his way to the top, but, yeah, look: He’s gotta step up to the big names, and Zepeda is a good one for him next.”
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at bernardneequaye@gmail.com.