SAN DIEGO – Ending weeks of negotiation, tension and social-media venting, Oscar De La Hoya turned to a reporter over lunch Thursday and said five little words, “Zepeda-Shakur is back on.”
With that, the veteran promoter and handler of recent consensus No. 1 lightweight contender William Zepeda 33-0 (27 KOs) of Mexico let the finer details flow, omitting that the bout against three-division and current WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson 23-0 (11 KOs) will be staged in New York.
Later in the day, Stevenson posted his reaction on “X,” by writing “Checkmate,” hours after he apologized to Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh for indicating he was offered a shorted purse from the money that was on the table when Stevenson and Zepeda first sought to fight in the late fall.
And then, The Ring Magazine reported the bout would land on July 12.
As he prepares to send three fighters – welterweights Ryan Garcia and Jose Ramirez and top-ranked 140lbs WBO contender Arnold Barboza – to the May 2 Times Square show, De La Hoya also is bracing for the summer return of unbeaten junior-middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jnr.
He said the renaissance of his promotional company, Golden Boy, is an extension of how he overcame defeats as a boxer.
“I strongly feel I’ve always had a target on my back – back to the day I promoted Deontay Wilder, the Charlo brothers and Adrien Broner and Al Haymon came along and did his thing and took everyone away – I had to re-build,” De La Hoya said.
The exodus of Canelo Alvarez in 2019 also shook the company to the core, but from the time De La Hoya told Alvarez at a news conference in May to “put some respect” on his name, Golden Boy’s stable has strengthened as it heads to a Saturday card in Oceanside, California, that features undisputed women’s champion Gabriela Fundora and WBO No. 2 junior-middleweight contender Charles Conwell in the co-main event.
“We kept building. I’m all about perseverance. I’m a fighter. I’m not going down whatsoever,” De La Hoya said. “We’re building again, re-charging by getting into the heavyweights.”
De La Hoya said he’s planning another New York card that will include Conwell, WBO/WBA strawweight champion Oscar Collazo and Uzbekistan’s welterweight Ruslan Abdullaev 1-0, who fights Saturday.
“I plan on pushing [Abdullaev] to a world title by his sixth fight. He’s like Lomachenko, but better,” De La Hoya said.