Shakur Stevenson’s choice to defend his WBC light-weight title in opposition to the unheralded Joe Cordina subsequent is believed to be a technique to spice up his plummeting inventory to place him in a greater place to barter a profitable unification combat in opposition to WBA champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for subsequent 12 months.
Utilizing Cordina, 32, as a device to weasel a greater deal in opposition to Tank Davis is doomed. It’s going to backfire due to the large backlash that has erupted over this choose. That is as little as you will get.
Handpicking from the 130-lb Division
It’s seen as a low transfer by Shakur to raid the 130-lb division, hand-picking a fighter who was not solely knocked out in his earlier combat however fully dominated your complete combat by Anthony Cacace final Might. Cordina was out of his league in that combat, getting hammered by the quicker, busier, and extra expert Cacace.
Shakur ought to have picked these fighters:
– William Zepeda
– Abdullah Mason
– Raymond Muratalla
– Andy Cruz
– Keyshawn Davis: *Set friendship apart for the candy money
Below the present state of affairs, Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) is coming off two consecutive horrible performances in opposition to Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos, and he’s not within the place to barter a good deal. Therefore, he’s chosen the non-lightweight Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) to make himself look good.
Shakur ought to seem like a pure 24k gold in opposition to Cordina, who was by no means that good however skillfully maneuvered by his promoter, Eddie Hearn, into capturing the IBF in opposition to Kenichi Ogawa in 2022.
Zepeda: The True Take a look at
For Shakur to get a greater monetary deal in opposition to Tank Davis, it’ll require a win over #1 William Zepeda in 2025. Cordina is a pure waste of time. Zepeda will doubtless beat Shakur except we see one other observe and area meet like we witnessed in Shakur’s questionable win over Edwin De Los Santos final November in Las Vegas.
Shakur can’t afford to show in one other efficiency like that if he needs to spice up his inventory to barter a combat in opposition to Tank Davis on favorable phrases.
If Shakur appears to be like dangerous in profitable efforts in opposition to Zepeda and Cordina, he should proceed scaring up the sport within the brush to combat somebody he can beat and look good in opposition to. In any other case, he’s not going to get the 50-50 cut up that he’s hoping for in opposition to Tank Davis if he continues to show in timid performances.
