{"id":787850,"date":"2026-07-08T22:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787850\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T22:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:07:07","slug":"shakur-stevenson-names-the-fighter-who-will-win-the-wbc-title-he-was-stripped-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787850\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson names the fighter who will win the WBC title he was stripped of"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> has offered his prediction for Lamont Roach vs William Zepeda, which he believes will end in one-sided fashion on August 1.<\/p>\n

The American successfully defended his WBC lightweight title against Zepeda in July 2025, defusing the Mexican\u2019s relentless aggression as he claimed a unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n

Stevenson then moved up to 140lbs and dethroned Teofimo Lopez<\/a> in January, becoming a four-weight world champion, but was subsequently stripped of his WBC belt at 135lbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This has therefore allowed leading contenders Roach and Zepeda to collide for the vacant title, headlining a Golden Boy card in Las Vegas next month.<\/p>\n

While Zepeda has not fought since his defeat to Stevenson, Roach is coming off an enthralling draw with Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz, who he faced at 140lbs in December.<\/p>\n

On this occasion, a draw was widely accepted as the fairest result but, earlier that year, \u2018The Reaper\u2019 was considered incredibly unfortunate not to emerge victorious against Gervonta \u2018Tank\u2019 Davis.<\/p>\n

Despite producing the performance of his life, Roach was forced to digest an egregious draw<\/a> after being denied a clear 10-8 round in the ninth frame, which would have seen him claim Davis\u2019 WBA title.<\/p>\n

Now, though, the 30-year-old has the opportunity to secure a different piece of lightweight jewellery, with Stevenson delivering his prediction via social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got Roach over Zepeda ngl [not going to lie] and I lowkey got it BTA [belt to a**].\u201d<\/p>\n

I got Roach over Zepeda ngl and I lowkey got it BTA<\/p>\n

\u2014 Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) July 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

While there were moments of competitive action in his clash with Zepeda, Stevenson was largely in control and perhaps believes that Roach, another skilled technician, can orchestrate a similar outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has offered his prediction for Lamont Roach vs William Zepeda, which he believes will end in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-787850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}