#1 ranked lightweight champion William Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with a third-round knockout victory over Giovanni Cabrera (22-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Ontario, California.
(Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions/ Cris Esqueda)
Zepeda hurt Cabrera with a left to the body in the third, followed by another hard punch that sent him down. Cabrera was slow in getting up, resulting in the referee waving it off.
Initially, Cabrera started fast, landing a lot of nice shots to the head of Zepeda, 28, in round one. He was hitting Zepeda at will and easily moving out of range to avoid his return fire.
The fight changed in the third round, as Zepeda came out at the bell, throwing nonstop punches, making it impossible for Cabrera to block them all or get away from him. Moments later, Zepeda knocked Cabrrera down with two body shots that ended the fight.
“I felt awesome in the first round. I thought I was stronger than him, and I did feel stronger than him,” said Giovanni Cabrera. “I thought I was hurting him with the punches I was landing, but then I started to be a little too selective.”
Cabrera looked great in the first round, but he began visibly tiring starting in the second round from the pressure Zepeda was putting on him and from being forced to move more than he was accustomed to.
It’s hard to gauge how good William Zepeda is from this performance because Cabrera looked average and nowhere near the top ten-level fighters at 135. He looked like he didn’t belong in the ring with Zepeda, and showed very little ability that would think for a contender.
It would be better for Zepeda to test himself against one of the top fighters like Keyshawn Davis or Andy Cruz before fighting for a world title.
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