Oscar de la Hoya over Zepeda’s loss of Stevenson: “scores were down”

Promotor Oscar de la Hoya says he believed “The scores were off” For his fighter William Zepeda’s 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 COs) last Saturday night in Queens, New York. De la Hoya still believes that Shakur fought well enough to earn the win.

Why did the scores feel?

Oscar noted that Zepeda (33-1, 27 COs) in the first half of the fight has the better quality, but then Shakur arrives in the second half. De la Hoya does not have his thoughts on how he judged the battle.

Many fans felt that Zepeda had done enough to win all the first six rounds. The way the judges scored the fight focused on head shots and ignored Zepeda’s body work and volume punch. This is how judges are trained. Many of them voice the body and just look at head shots.

“It was a good fight. The scores were off, but Shakur did his thing. The first half was Zepeda. The second half was Shakur. You have to give it up to him, ‘Eddie Hearn said Fight hubRespond to his fighter, William Zepeda, and lost to Shakur Stevenson last Saturday night.

“It was back and forth. It was a wonderful show. It is back to the drawing board, but one loss is nothing. One loss for a very good fighter like Shakur means nothing. You bounce back from it. That’s what boxing is, ‘De la Hoya said about Zepeda.

De la Hoya does not mention that the flaws Zepeda showed against Shakur were similar to what he showed in his two razors against Tevin Farmer. Zepeda is hit a lot with head shots that clean the judges and impress the judges.

What were Zepeda’s battle errors?

1. Easy to hit with head shots
2. Focus too much on the punch of the body: The judges do not put on the body as they do with head shots. They tend to ignore the body of the body when they achieve rounds unless a fighter is visibly injured.
3. Not enough power on volume shots: Zepeda’s power is not good enough with its high output attacks to surpass the right pleasant head shots of fighters such as Shakur and Farmer.

“He (Zepeda) threw a lot more push, but the one thing about Shakur is the bumps he lands, they are very effective. This is great for the standings. I think it was a good fight in general. It was another wonderful experience for Zepeda. You grow and learn. That’s it, ‘says De la Hoya.

Where Zepeda failed, he was close enough to Stevenson to reach his head with his push. Many of ‘El Camaron’ Zepeda’s shots were lacking because Shakur leaned back a lot of the time. William could have corrected this problem by approaching before targeting the head.

Another problem that Zepeda had was Shakur’s interest. He did not fight through the clinic like other fighters, who are trained to deal with guys holding. Zepeda gently allowed Stevenson to tie him rather than wrestle or strike him while being held. He could have done one of these things. This is a training issue for Zepeda.