Tevin Farmer’s fans are angry, believe he was robbed in his 10-round split decision against lightweight contender William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) in their bout at The Venue in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Farmer’s followers repeatedly cite his fourth-round blitz of Zepeda, and use it as a reason why he deserved the win. They don’t mention that this was the only round Farmer actually won, and he was worked to the body and head by Zepeda’s volume of punches.
If the only thing a person saw was the short flash knockdown clip on social media that went viral, it’s understandable why they think he was robbed and deserves the win over Zepeda. This is not the reality of the struggle. Zepeda dominated every round with volume and kept farmers holding for survival purposes.
Zepeda Overwhelms Boer
Boer fans should let this little statistic sink in. Zepeda threw 1087 punches and landed 527 for a 48% connection rate. Not only did Zepeda throw a large number of punches each round, but he literally couldn’t miss.
What made it even more significant is that he threw power shots, many of them to the body of Farmer, which is why the Philadelphia native had nothing left by the sixth round.
Farmer’s Sea Lamprey Strategy Fails
Those body shots from Zepeda were kryptonite for Farmer, wearing him down to the point where he looked like a sea lamprey stuck to a fish. Boer did the best he could with his pot shots, but he couldn’t match the work rate or the power of Zepeda’s shots. It’s unclear if Farmer’s team’s game plan for the fight was to consistently clinch to stifle Zepeda’s offense or if he came up with this on his own. Either way, it was a failure.
If Farmer wanted to win, he had to throw punches because it was clear he couldn’t handle the heat Zepeda was putting on him.
That’s why he lost. If judges scored rounds based on finishes, Farmer would have won because he topped Zepeda in that category in every round.
It’s not the end of the world for Zepeda. He could bounce back from this loss if he returns to super featherweight, but it is clear at this point that he is too weak to compete at lightweight. If he stays in the weight class, he will still be used as a B-side opponent to prepare fighters for Shakur Stevenson, which is why he got the gig against Zepeda. He’s a knockout version of Shakur, but bolder, more power and not a runner.
De La Hoya In Awe of Zepeda
“I had one point for William. He had the ruthless style; he kept throwing punches. He takes hits like no other fighter,” said Oscar De La Hoya iFL TV about William Zepeda after his victory over Tevin Farmer at the Latino Night on Saturday in Riyadh.
“Tevin is a great fighter. He said to me after the fight, ‘Look, I want to come back and fight for you. Absolutely, Tevin Farmer will be champion one day.”
If Farmer is going to be a champion “one day,” it better be soon, because he turns 35 in July, and he’s lost his last two fights. De La Hoya needs to persuade Farmer to return to 130 or even drop down further to 126 if he can make the weight.
Farmer is never going to be a world champion at 135 because he can’t hit hard enough, as we saw against Zepeda. He is going to clinch his way to a world title.
Now this fight is over, Zepeda is ready to challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson and overwhelm him with punches like he did against Farmer. Shakur’s work rate is abysmal compared to Zepeda’s.
For example, in Shakur’s fight against Edwin De Los Santos last year on November 16, he only threw 297 strokes and landed 81. Now compare that to the 1087 punches Zepeda threw against Farmer. Zepeda landed 527 of those shots. You see what I mean. This is probably not going to end well for Shakur.
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