‘The Golden Boy’ has started clapping. No, it’s not for celebrating a champion from his stable. Rather, from what he said, it appears to be the exact opposite. Oscar De La Hoya had a big reason to smile when the number one contender from his stable, William Zepeda, registered yet another victory in his trademark style. Ever since then, talks have been rife about a potential matchup between the ‘Camaron’ and the WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson.

The Newark-born Southpaw also registered yet another on the same day when Zepeda won. In front of a home crowd, he defeated Artem Harutyunyan unanimously during the first title defense. The fight was also the last under the Top Rank banner. Now, in effect, he is a free agent. Needless to say, he has been receiving overtures from different promotions. One of them being De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. But the Olympic gold medalist reportedly set Stevenson joining the ranks as one of the preconditions for the Zepeda fight. As things stand, even the WBC has given instructions on Stevenson’s next title defense, against Zepeda. Oscar De La Hoya, as he took over on his ‘Thursdays Clap-Out’, however, seems to have had enough of the commotion.

Oscar De La Hoya draws the ‘Golden’ line

But first, ‘The Golden Boy’ had a poser for the WBC. What exactly did they mean by ‘ordered’ Shakur Stevenson versus William Zepeda? To be precise, the tweet from talkSPORT‘s Michael Benson read, “The WBC have now officially ordered Shakur Stevenson to defend his WBC lightweight world title vs William Zepeda next.”

But De La Hoya has his doubts. When the WBC says they want the two lightweights to fight, then what happened in Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez‘s case? “They ordered Canelo-Benavidez, like three years ago, and that hasn’t happened,” he asked. Then he specified that ‘Camaron’ would soon come to a final decision on his next fight. He currently has three alternates to consider, said the former world champion.

Then, addressing Shakur Stevenson, Oscar De La Hoya stated, “You’re a free agent; you’re a great fighter, great talent, but not for me.” In his view, when a boxer says that what he is doing is not meant for the fans and followers, he has a problem with that notion. Later, he also addressed the prevailing rumors, “that the Saudis are going to take over boxing and buy out every single promoter.” According to De La Hoya, since he is still unapproached so far, he would rather fans not believe everything that they get to read.

Shakur Stevenson responded back to Oscar De La Hoya’s Thursday Clap-Out. According to him, ‘The Golden Boy’ sounded dejected since he already knew that he was not going to join the Golden Boy stable.

Shakur Stevenson: Future fights through promotional challenges

The camps of Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda are now mandated to reach an agreement by August 20. Failing which, the fight might proceed towards a purse bid. 70% of the share will be in Shakur Stevenson’s favor.

There are no questions about the phenomenal skills of the Newark-born Southpaw. However, his defensive-minded fighting style has come under intense scrutiny of late. After his victory over Harutyunyan, fans saw him on a Twitter outburst against anyone who believed that his boxing style needed mending. As a result, there were a few run-ins with a few former champions, such as Ishe Smith, Marcus Browne, and Andre Berto.

Per the available reports, Shakur Stevenson declined a $15 million five-fight extension deal from Top Rank. Now Oscar De La Hoya has delivered the parting shot. So it remains to be seen whether Shakur Stevenson will follow in Jaron Ennis‘ footsteps. Jump across the pond to join the Matchroom ranks.

What’s your take on Oscar De La Hoya’s reflections? If not William Zepeda, who, in your view, Shakur Stevenson should go against?