Comments Thread For: Paulie Malignaggi's Picks: It's hard to get excited about Shakur Stevenson-Joe Cordina

[BoxingUpdates]

When we'd been expecting to see Shakur Stevenson fight William Zepeda, and hoping he'd fight Gervonta "Tank" Davis, it's difficult to be supportive of Joe Cordina challenging for Stevenson's WBC lightweight title.
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[Cyborg Fangerloo]

Interesting takes on the Saudis taking fights away from home countries.
On one side, I miss the heck out of HBO in Vegas or fights at MSG. It is one of the few times you can feel electricity from a TV. On the other side, I am on the east coast and staying up until 1am sure makes Sundays tough.

[Oldskoolg]

This is the influence that Hearn has on “his excellency”….fights that would happen on Manchester, London, etc with British fighters getting paydays now happen in Saudi. Before that they were happening in the USA and in fights they didn’t actually deserve. It’s what makes so many matchroom cards totally uninteresting.

[thack]

Boxing is all about money , the Saudi's have little more to offer but they are putting on some tremendous cards that because of the promoters hatred for each other and limited budgets would never have happened.There are draw backs as in everything , but keep the great fights happening and the game and the fighters will be richer for it. I would consider a visit for the right fight , at least it wouldn't be full of p-issheads

[SteveM]

Malignaggi has a great point - you have to keep the wheel turning by not just continuing to recycle the same tier 1 and tier 2 fighters. I think, so far, Turki is achieving that. He is drawing in more and more A level fighters - Bakole, Anderson, Stevenson and giving a platform to next generation fighters such as Whittaker (I doubt he is going far).
Obviously he is constrained to a certain level of the business side as really Cacace deserves to be fighting Stevenson more than Cordina - but Cacace is een more unknown plus at the end of his career so he gets sifted by the Saudi sieve.

[champion4ever]

What happened to William Zepeda? I thought Shakur Stevenson was fighting him next.

[boxingitis]

It's hard to get excited for "any" of Shakur fights.

[landotter]

Generally speaking... I find it hard to get mad at any of these points, and I am not a huge Malignaggi fan. But everything in this article is fair. Some fights are better in front of home town fans. Some fights are made purely for finance reasons and not because a fighter has earned it.

And Beterbiev-Bivol is the fight I have been wanting for 4 years. Do I wish Beterbiev was not coming off a major injury? Sure. But I will trust him and his team they are ready and just be excited for it.

[anonymous2.0]

What happened to William Zepeda? I thought Shakur Stevenson was fighting him next.

Oscar said Zepeda wanted to take time off for his newborn son, which I think is code for sitting out Stevenson and then going a different route.

[champion4ever]

Oscar said Zepeda wanted to take time off for his newborn son, which I think is code for sitting out Stevenson and then going a different route.

You are right. In addition, I’ve heard that Golden Boy won’t make the fight happen unless Shakur Stevenson signs with them.