Shakur Stevenson takes issue with Turki Alalshikh’s crackdown on ‘Tom and Jerry’ fights in boxing

As WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson prepares for his long-awaited July 12 title defense against mandatory challenger William Zepeda, it has been hard to overlook the staggering size of the chips on both of his shoulders. 

Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs), the 28-year-old southpaw and three-division champion who captured silver at the 2016 Olympics, has heard it all from his critics who claim he fights in a boring style and that promoters should consider mandating a smaller ring to prevent the slick native of Newark, New Jersey, from using his legs to secure victory. 

So, as he prepares to make the third defense of his title against Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) following a particularly tough two years in the public eye where Stevenson was criticized for being booed out of his home city in a title defense against Artem Harutyunyan in 2024 before getting zero credit for stopping late replacement Josh Padley in February (after Floyd Schofield Jr. pulled out), Stevenson is firing back. 

“F— them, they don’t f—ing matter. They aren’t the ones getting in that ring,” Stevenson told CBS Sports last week. “I don’t have to stand and fight somebody else’s fight, I fight my own fight. And if I feel like standing in there and fighting, I’m doing that because I know I can win that fight. At the end of the day, it only matters if I come out victorious. I don’t care what anyone else says or all of these rules that they are trying to fake put out. 

“F— them. Seriously, f— them, I don’t want to hear that shit.”

The fight against Zepeda, a 29-year-old native of Mexico, will take place on the first boxing card to be held at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York, the site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The event will be the third Turki Alalshikh under his new “The Ring” series, sponsored by the legendary magazine that Alalshikh purchased last year.  

While Stevenson went on record saying he “appreciates” Alalshikh for making the fight, especially considering it was one Stevenson has been chasing for two years, he did take umbrage with the powerful Saudi Arabian adviser’s new anti-running mandate meant to aggressively dissuade boxers from avoiding contact. 

Alalshikh has vowed to eliminate what he calls “Tom and Jerry” boxing matches, which is likely a reference to the record-setting low CompuBox output that was delivered in fights on back-to-back nights in early May on Alalshikh cards involving Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Canelo Alvarez and William Scull. In fact, Alalshikh repeated the warning throughout the recent Alvarez-Terence Crawford multi-city press tour to promote their Sept. 13 superfight.  

“I’m disappointed in some of the things I have been hearing them say at the press conferences with the ‘no running’ thing,” Stevenson said. “At the end of the day, ‘Bud’ Crawford has put on amazing performances in the sport of boxing. I never saw a fight where he ran so this is disrespectful to disrespect a legend like this.

“I think it’s out of place using that line with any fighter, in my opinion. I just feel like we are all fighters, we all go through a long training camp and we work super hard to come out there and deliver to the best of our abilities. Now, if some guys want to move and use movement, that’s just part of boxing. I have nothing bad to say about guys moving and using the ring. [Muhammad] Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, they have to be disappointed hearing some of that type of shit because they use the ring a lot. I just don’t agree with that.” 

When the fight was announced, Stevenson also shared publicly his disappointment with being placed against Zepeda in the co-main event, as the chief support fight for the non-title super middleweight clash involving New York-native Edgar Berlanga against Hamzah Sheeraz, a 26-year-old slugger from England whom Alalshikh has big plans for, including a fight against Alvarez should Sheeraz win. 

“I mean, everybody would [be upset],” Stevenson said. “But at the end of the day, [I have] nothing but respect to [Alalshikh and ‘The Ring’] for the decisions that they make behind closed doors. I don’t have shit to do with that but I know it has something to do with the Hamzah Sheeraz kid that Turki likes so I get it.”

Alalshikh’s support of Sheeraz also extends to Stevenson, if a recent social media post is any indication, where the chairman of the Saudi Arabian general entertainment authority was criticized as a promoter by many in boxing for outright declaring his hope that both would be victorious because of the big fights he intends to make for each one (and that a loss for either one would be a “complete disaster”).  

It was a tweet that even caught Stevenson off guard. 

“I just don’t know how real it is,” said Stevenson, in regards to Alalshikh’s often trolling ways online. “I have no clue if that’s how he really feels or what side is. I don’t know, so all I can focus on is my job and what I’ve got ahead. I’m coming in there to make sure that none of that shit happens.”