Lightweight William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) overcame a surprising fourth-round knockdown to defeat Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) via a 10-round split decision to win the WBC interim 135-lb title to be won tonight at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Farmer, 34, caught Zepeda with a left hand in round four that dropped him to the canvas. The punch caught Zepeda off guard as he attacked, and he never saw it coming. It was the highlight of the fight for Farmer, who was outworked by Zepeda in every round.
Zepeda’s bodywork overlooked
The judges were impressed by the hard, clean head shots that Farmer occasionally caught Zepeda with, but the rounds were all dominated by the Mexican fighter. Even in the fourth, which was Farmer’s best round, Zepeda took him out by a wide margin and pounded him with body shots.
The judges ignored Zepeda’s bodywork, so they scored the fight closer than it should have been. Zepeda landed more than twice as many body shots as Farmer and connected on more power shots.
After Zepeda was knocked down in the fourth, he turned up the heat on Farmer, throwing non-stop punches and making him hold on to survive. Most of the final six rounds of the contest involved Farmer closing in on stopping Zepeda’s offense as he was worked over to the body and head. You could see the fight being taken out of Farmer from the flurry of shots Zepeda hit him with.
The judges scored:
– 95-94: Zepeda
– 95-94: Zepeda
– 95-94: Farmer.
Boer was bitter after the fight and said, “The knockdown affected it for me.” That one knockdown by Farmer didn’t negate how Zepeda outworked him in every round of the fight. Again, the judges didn’t give Zepeda credit for the body shots he hit Farmer with, nor did they notice that Tevin was often holding on.
The referee, Harvey Dock, should have penalized the excessive hitting for affecting the flow of the fight. It wasn’t an occasional hold up. It was non-stop.
Final Punch Statistics
William Zepeda connected on 259 of 778 shots for a 33.3%.
Tevin Farmer connected on 193 of 587 shots for a 32.9%.
In the final three rounds, Farmer’s body language resembled that of a tired fighter as he was exhausted from the pace that Zepeda imposed on him. He couldn’t last as much as Zepeda wrestled out of the clinches and landed short body shots that further battered the American.
With the win, Zepeda will next challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22 in Riyadh. Of course, Shakur will have to make it through training camp without suffering a setback with his surgically repaired right hand.
Zepeda throws non stop punches I’ve never fought a pressure fighter in the pros that doesn’t stop the puncher. It’s gonna be fun!
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) November 16, 2024
 overcame a surprise fourth-round knockdown to defeat Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) by a 10-round split decision to){kind=link}