William Zepeda retained his mandatory position for Shakur Stevenson’s WBC world lightweight title after narrowly edging a split decision against seasoned veteran Tevin Farmer.
The number one-ranked contender at 135 lbs was back in action last night, appearing on the undercard of Gilberto Ramirez’s stunning victory over Chris Billam-Smith in Saudi Arabia.
Before extending his unbeaten record, though, Zepeda was compelled to overcome a scare in the fourth round when Farmer landed a sneaky left hand out of the southpaw stance.
Sure enough, the 28-year-old recovered swiftly from the knockdown, but only convinced two of the judges that he had done enough to emerge victorious.
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Shakur Stevenson hails the punch output of William Zepeda
Ultimately, Zepeda’s relentless work rate allowed him to prevail against the former world champion, who seemingly struggled to match the younger man’s intensity.
But still, after 10 rounds of enthralling action, one judge scored the fight 95-94 to Farmer, while the other two favored the volume of his more aggressive opponent.
At times, Zepeda struggled to negate the slickness of the American, who remained defensively responsible throughout the contest.
Last night, too, the Mexican was taken the distance for the first time since 2022, with his previous four outings ending in emphatic fashion.
But regardless of his less destructive performance, Zepeda was nonetheless able to claim the WBC interim strap, keeping himself next in line to face Stevenson.
Stevenson, meanwhile, was scheduled to face former world champion Joe Cordina back in October, until he was then forced to pull out due to a hand injury.
Having seemingly made a full recovery, however, the pound-for-pound star is now looking to defend his belt against Zepeda in February.
On X, he said: “Zepeda throws non stop punches I never fought a pressure fighter in the pros that doesn’t stop [punching], This gone be fun!”
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William Zepeda threw over a thousand punches against Tevin Farmer
It is unsurprising that Stevenson has praised the punch output of Zepeda ahead of their potential clash next year.
The fan-friendly bruiser, after all, threw a total of 1087 shots against Farmer, but only connected with less than half of his swings.
And so, it could be said that, against a highly-skilled operator like Stevenson, Zepeda will need to be far more efficient with his work.