Hello friends, readers, and undercover haters. We’re going scattershot again this week because there’s just not that much going on that deserves a full column’s attention. So, let’s go.
– WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson went public with an eye-catching grievance aimed at Saudi figurehead Turki Alalshikh on Saturday afternoon.
Oscar De La Hoya came back from a long social media layoff to claim that Stevenson pulled out of the long-promised, many-times obstacled bout with his fighter William Zepeda. This, of course, is after De La Hoya and Zepeda had pulled away from a Stevenson fight on at least two, and arguably three, separate occasions.
Stevenson would fire back with this:
“[Four Teary-Laughing Emojis] is that what they told you?? Turki promised me a number and now he going way back on that number that he promised me and sending his Towel boys to run me the info instead telling me straight up what he tryna do.. Ion bow down to nobody Mr De la Hoya now let’s negotiate!”
He’d go on to say that he absolutely does still want the Zepeda fight and that he and Oscar can do business outside of Turki’s reach to get a deal done.
If Shakur was indeed low-balled (he claimed on Twitter that “these dudes want to take advantage of me by giving me way less then I got for [Josh] Padley”), it seems to be a pretty shitty and cynical business move from Turki and his people. I mean, how awful IS it that event organizers who helped diminish a fighter’s marketability, are now punishing him for having diminished marketability?
Then again, Stevenson is a grown man who consciously made the decision to sign with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, nudged into the deal by the promise of working with the Saudis who, supposedly, weren’t concerned about losing money and who were throwing cash around like a horny divorcee at a Tijuana strip club.
But, seriously, in what kind of fantasy world did he expect an endless flow of high-end paydays after cratering his own star power by fighting on low-selling PPV undercards, in front of indifferent fans, on the other side of the world? Duh.
Nobody likes to lose money, even those with a seemingly endless supply of it– often, ESPECIALLY those with a seemingly endless supply of it. It was only a matter of time before Turki began to scale down the expenditures on things losing him money and, perhaps more accurately, things he doesn’t know how to spin into money-making ventures.
Then again, this could all be manufactured BS– the kind Turki and his gobblers have become known for– since Turki’s Ring Magazine shared this “beef” via their social media feeds shortly after it took place. It should be well known by now that the self-proclaimed new face of boxing has zero tolerance for things that don’t paint him in the best light, just ask that kid he had sentenced to 19 years in a Saudi prison for an insulting tweet.
At any rate, Shakur would close out the topic by reaffirming how much he really wants the Zepeda bout and how, as a mandated WBC title fight, he could simply wait on the purse bid.
Oh yeah, and he also fired this all-caps missile, apparently aimed at Turki and his people:
“REAL MEN STAND UP NEVER BOW DOWN TO NOBODY BUT THE CREATOR.”
– Speaking of bowing down, ESPN’s Mike Coppinger announced– appropriately enough, on April Fool’s Day– that he was leaving the monster sports platform for the musky embrace of Turki Alalshikh’s Ring Magazine.
The move was actually a pretty poorly kept secret among media members, who had been talking about it (and sending the news to me) for weeks before it was made official. Apparently, Turki really, really liked the way “Copp” took the money shot to his face back in February, when he helped pass along Turki’s “strategic” campaign of lies ahead of his Canelo Alvarez signing (some say “Copp” was proverbially spooning with Turki even before that test of love).
Any journalist who can be happy-faced duped like that is no journalist at all– and that makes Coppinger perfect for “New Era” Ring Magazine, which has assembled an absolute all-star team of toe-suckers and convenient idiots. One assumes that the last remaining decent, honest writers over there will be weeded out soon enough.
– An interesting and amusing insight into the “all must obey, all must show deference” atmosphere swirling around all things Turki was posted by @dantheboxingman on Twitter over the weekend, showcasing a pair of Teofimo Lopez social media comments that featured an abrupt and total change of tone regarding the Saudi bossman and the May 2 Ring Magazine event Lopez will be co-headlining.
“…The promotion you guys been doing on our card has been [shit emoji] @turkialalshik @ringmagazine,” Teofimo commented via Instagram.
That post was, apparently, deleted and replaced with a comment stating the exact opposite.
“May 2nd is going to be a super stardom night of boxing. Great job everyone & HE [His Excellency] @ringmagazine @turkialalshik,” the comment read.
The awkward phrasing [“A super stardom night of boxing?”] suggests that maybe, possibly someone with limited English made the comment, using Teofimo’s account. Or, maybe, Teo’s got a weird way of writing to go along with his willingness to have two totally opposite viewpoints on the same issue.
– Tim Tszyu got his first win since October of 2023 over the weekend, battering the pretty pedestrian Joey Spencer in four rounds and forcing a white towel surrender from Spencer’s corner.
It was an expected dominant performance by the Australian, who was riding a two-fight losing streak coming into the Newcastle-hosted junior middleweight bout. If he hadn’t been able to beat Spencer, it would’ve been time to hang up the gloves and do something else with his life.
But the second generation fighter did what he was supposed to do, in the way he was supposed to do it and showed that there’s plenty of life still in him.
A bout with Keith Thurman would still make for a surprisingly big event and an eventual rematch with Sebastian Fundora, who beat him in March of last year in a close, bloody affair, would also be a meaningful show.
However, he’s still the fighter who was blown out in three rounds by Bakhram Murtazaliev and who was thrown into relative passivity by the cut suffered in a Fundora fight he was winning up until the blood started flowing.
Tszyu is an exciting, engaging fighter, but there are still plenty of questions to be answered.
– Heavyweight Richard Torrez is also an exciting, engaging fighter, but there’s a low ceiling when it comes to his future. As demonstrated once again in his unanimous decision victory over Guido Vianello this past Saturday in Las Vegas, he doesn’t seem to have the talent or the skill to succeed at the elite level of the division.
Vianello represented the stiffest test so far in Torrez’s three-year pro career and Torrez did well enough. There’s just not a whole lot there, beyond grit and wishful thinking from Top Rank and fans.
Hopefully, I’m wrong. The US boxing scene could definitely use a legit top heavyweight contender.
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