Trainer Stephen Edward predicts that Shakur Stevenson is going to show the same form against William Zepeda next week that he did when he knocked out WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring in the tenth round in 2021.

WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) needs to look at least that good for him to have a shot at knocking out or beating the volume puncher Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) in their 12-round co-feature on July 12th at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.

Shakur’s Aggression vs. Zepeda

Shakur, 28, doesn’t look as young or as strong in his recent fights at lightweight as he did when he stopped the then-35-year-old Herring. Stevenson has aged since then. You can see it. He’s not the same fighter he was at 24.

There’s a big difference between the youth, power, size, and punch output of Zepeda compared to Herring in that fight.

Even that version of Stevenson wouldn’t be able to do the same thing to William Zepeda without taking a lot of punishment. Shakur would be forced to back off and likely run if he attempted to fight Zepeda the same way he did Herring.

He had the perfect opponent for him to open up on offense against because Herring was small, thin, old, and had no power. That would be interesting if Shakur were to try to go straight into the teeth of Zepeda’s offense. That would be risky.

Alalshikh Wants Aggressive Shakur

However, it would make Turki Alalshikh happy if Stevenson fought aggressively because he doesn’t want to see any running on the July 12th card. That’s why he had the ring size reduced to 18 x 18.

With all the boasting that Stevenson has done going into this fight, he’s got to win. He’s been telling everyone that he’s the best in boxing and that he was going to make a statement against Zepeda. No one takes Shakur seriously with that kind of talk, but they do expect him to still outbox Zepeda to get a decision win. But if he loses, it’s going to be bad for his career.

I think this Shakur is going to show up vs Zepeda. https://t.co/b1YGVunR97

— Stephen Edwards (@BreadmanBoxing) July 4, 2025