Purse bids ordered for Shakur Stevenson-William Zepeda
Jul 15, 2024 • 4:30 PM ET
The World Boxing Council has ordered its lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson to defend his title against the top-ranked contender William Zepeda, with a purse bid scheduled for August 20.
Stevenson, 22-0 (10KOs), and Zepeda each fought on July 6. Stevenson defeated Artem Harutyunyan via unanimous decision in Newark, and Zepeda, 31-0 (27KOs), knocked out Giovanni Cabrera in the third round in Ontario, California.
The 27-year-old Stevenson’s fight was his last with long-time promoter Top Rank, moving him to free agency.
Earlier in July, Stevenson, and the 28-year-old Zepeda’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, participated in a Zoom call to discuss the three-division world champion’s future.
De La Hoya emerged from that meeting saying that the only way Stevenson could fight the Mexican – who is the consensus number one contender among all four sanctioning bodies – is to sign with Golden Boy.
The purse bid auction creates the possibility for another promoter to emerge, making the highest bid to promote the bout.
Given both fighters’ schedules, a fall date is likely to follow the winning purse bid.
The IBF champion Vasiliy Lomachenko was scheduled to arrive in the US on Monday to receive an update regarding a potential unification fight with Stevenson’s rival Gervonta “Tank” Davis, the WBA champion, also for the fall.
Lance Pugmire has been a full-time boxing writer for nearly 20 years, serving now as BoxingScene’s U.S. Senior Writer and assistant producer for ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” Pugmire capped a near 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times (sports investigations, NHL/MLB beat work, law enforcement/courts and boxing/UFC) to join The Athletic, and then USA Today. Pugmire’s stint at The Times started with the first Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight and the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jnr then-record pay-per-view, leading through a slew of ringside assignments at major bouts, including Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Canelo and the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. Lance’s appreciation for boxing is rooted in his admiration and appreciation for the fighters, gladiators who have proven to be the most forthcoming and candid of all the athletes he has interviewed over a career dating to 1990. Lance was honored to be named the 2022 winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence and he’s collected many BWAA writing awards in categories ranging from breaking news to deep-dive long features.
