So that was all a lie. What was that all about? There was bad information leading into this fight. For weeks we heard about how they had all agreed to an 18 x 18 foot ring and the sense was that this was being imposed on Shakur. But come fight night we see a rather large looking apparent 20 x 20. What are we to make of all this? Was it originally set to be 18 x 18, did Shakur's team insist on a 20 x 20? I'm not sure what to make of the shrinking ring fake announcement and all the speculation that got. Did Turki throw a curve here with the shrinking ring post to distract from the fact that the Ring was being returned to normal size? I don't think Sheeraz would have agreed to a smaller ring. Someone that big, that tall, with feet that big, wouldn't want to be confined in a small little guy's ring. And we see what happened. Did Sheeraz save Shakur from a smaller ring? And more importantly, isn't it surprising that they had the bigger ring and yet Shakur ended up fighting in a crowd pleasing manner, whilst staying on the ropes for stretches. Turki has been stressing that he does not support Tom and Jerry fights, you can bet that he had a stern talking to Shakur before the fight about running, and Shakur may have been prohibited from "running". While he fought the way he did to prove a point, he also may have been under threat from Turki, in that if he didn't fight in an action packed crowd pleasing manner, his financial future may be in jeopardy. Where do you stand on this the scheming against Running that is going on? At one point late in the Shakur Zepeda fight Shakur did some moderate lateral motion for brief moment and it was booed immediately and the commentators got really sensitive about it. The William Scull performance against Canelo may have scarred Turki for life when it comes to elusive slicksters. I'm not sure this guy Turki can mentally cope with runners, or even moderate movers.
What about the ring size? We heard for weeks about how it was gonna be a tiny 18 x 18, it turned out to be normal size. What happened behind the scenes?
https://www.boxingnews24.com/2025/0...-deliver-excitement-avoid-fan-disappointment/ Currently, the ring size is 18 x 18, but there’s a strong belief among people that Shakur (23-0, 11 KOs) will still have enough room to sprint away from Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs), making the fight pure poison for the eyes. If it’s not too late, a 16-foot ring would be perfect for the event to maximize entertainment value from fighters who choose to move all night, So as of, 06/22/2025 the understanding was that the ring had already been reduced to 18 x 18, and this article is a call for it to be reduced even further to a tiny 16 x 16. And that it would have been "pure poison" for the eyes to have it in the normal 20 x 20. Well it happened, and it turned out to deliver as an action packed fan favorite. The arguments made in that article are curious and would stem from Haney's performance of "running" in Times Square. The claim here was that the ring must be smaller to keep Shakur from running. But does Shakur move as much as Haney? Why should Shakur be punished for how Haney fights? Somehow we went from a 18 x 18 back to a 20 x 20 and despite this Shakur was able to avoid running, and win in a larger ring with repeated use of the ropes. At its core this is the SRL vs Duran I & II syndrome. SRL came to fight in the first and lost in a classic, then he decided to "run" in the rematch and Duran became so incensed by this style and his inability to do anything about it that he "quit". No one wants to be shown up or embarrassed. Fans can respect a warrior who comes forward and goes out on his shield but not a runner / staller. Still, runners can be fun, especially when the opponent is able to catch him and make him pay for it. But what about when a runner isn't made to pay, who can't be caught and is able to out wit a frustrated opponent. This is a part of boxing as well my friends and we don't want to lose that just because Haney was able to run his way to victory. Haney applied the lesson SRL learned against Duran the first time and he fought even more cautiously than before. Fans pay good money to see people fight. And when a fight doesn't break out, the boo birds come out. So I can see both sides of this, but in the end imposing smaller rings on our great sport is very gimmicky. Those 16 x 16 are only seen in Mexico, not in the Heartland of Boxing. Boxers aren't rock em sock em robots people. If you have a problem with runners, do something about it. Meaning the Fighter. If a fighter like Shakur is willing to commit to standing in front of a guy under threat of a promoter, he is free to do so. But on the other hand, that is a very uncommon and unusual situation. Shakur stated after the fight that he took more punishment fighting how he did, and he is a grown man who made his own decisions. Early on in the fight he got into some trouble by maybe fighting too much, but managed to get through it. It was a fine line he was walking though, wanting to not only win but to please Turki's blood thirsty ambitions as well. But not just Turki but also wanting to show himself to be a true warrior, while also showing skills and how he can fight skillfully in the trenches. Shakur did a lot of moving away throughout the fight, but he didn't get on his bike which seems to be an important distiction. Fans seem to be OK with slowly moving in a backward direction as long as punches are being thrown, however when Ali gave constant lateral motion it was glorified and accepted as part of the entertainment, and he's said to be the Greatest. Why isn't this sort of thing seen as part of the entertainment anymore? Willie Pep was also glorified for supposedly winning a round without throwing a single punch, anotherwords no offense, all defenses. But yet this kind of stuff these days are being frowned upon it would seem. My question is, how did we get here, how did we get to a point to where a promoter like Turki and some of the fans would be calling for smaller rings, to force people to fight? Is boxing not brutal enough for you as it is? Do we really need less movement in the ring and more battering of people senseless? At this rate boxers aren't going to have long careers. If we truly want to see boxing return to greatness we're not going to get there by making people fight in phone booths. It's by elevating the sport and allowing fighters to express themself in the ring. This could result in some boring fights, but that depends on the fighter. You can't let the bad apples ruin the party for everyone else. We got two great fights in a normal 20 x 20 ring, but only under the threat of a smaller ring, to incentive fighters to fight. Lets put it this way. if incentivizing fighters to fight is able to produce better fights in normal sized rings, that's preferable than forcing them into smaller rings. And I'm not necessarily against smaller rings. Particularly in lower weight classes, between brawlers or even with movers, it can be fun to see how movers handle a smaller ring, but generally this makes more sense in a contendership match rather than a high level prize fight. But there's a big difference between a 16 x 16 and an 18 x 18. 16 x 16 is practically a phone booth and is practically unheard of in America. In a 18 x 18 there's still some room to maneuver. But in the lower weight classes, 18 x 18 can feel like 20 x 20 in higher weight classes, with bigger guys, depending on styles and speed of course. When smaller guys fight in a larger ring, it can feel like an ocean. The trouble is when you have bigger guys fighting on the same card as the smaller guys. You keep the ring bigger for the bigger guys and hope the smaller guys come to fight. If you want to put Shakur in a smaller ring, then maybe don't co-main it with SMWs. But you can't stop a guy from fighting how he's gonna fight. Scull mighta been KTFO had he been forced to fight like Shakur. But that's not who Scull is. It's fair game to criticize Scull, he could have and should have done more, not just to entertain but to try to win. Winning and pleasing the fans generally go together like peas and carrots. But these days, maybe not so much.
No, I was very skeptical of it. And more importantly, I'm trying to understand what really went on behind the scenes here that led to it. We somehow went from what had been reported for weeks (prior to the Shrinking ring post) that an 18 x 18 ring was agreed upon to going back to a normal 20 x 20. So not only was the shrinking ring fake news, but so were the reports for weeks that they were having a 18 x 18. Or were they? What happened here? The public deserves answers. We were lied to, on numerous levels. And we're all just supposed to pretend that this all isn't highly suspicious and bizarre? For weeks and weeks fans pushed and pushed for a smaller ring, crying about how Shakur was gonna run if you didn't put him in a proverbial phone booth, an absurd claim, then we get him fighting with a warrior's spirit in a 20 x 20 winning in decisive fashion. And not only is everyone and their mother ignoring all the false reporting and manipulation going on behind the scenes, but no one's really even praising Shakur for how he fought. For not running, for trading with Zepeda. All we have is people doing the usual crying about scorecards. I'm sorry but I can't let all this nonsense slide. From the false reporting of the ring size, to the wild shrinking ring post, to the claims by fans that Shakur wouldn't ever fight the way he did unless he was forced into a smaller ring, all turned out to be a whole lot of hot air!!
