Lightweight William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) overcame a surprise fourth-round knockdown to defeat Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) by a 10-round split decision to win the WBC interim 135-lb title on Saturday night at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Farmer, 34, caught Zepeda with a left hand in round four that put him down on the canvas. The punch caught Zepeda off guard while he was attacking, and he never saw it coming. That was the high point of the fight for Farmer, who was outworked in every round by Zepeda.
Zepeda’s Bodywork Overlooked
The judges were impressed by the hard, clean headshots 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 out-landed him by a wide margin, hitting him with body shots.
The judges ignored Zepeda’s bodywork, so they scored the fight closer than it should have been. Zepeda landed over 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 nonstop punches and making him hold to survive. Most of the final six rounds of the contest involved Farmer clinching to stymie Zepeda’s offense because he was getting worked over the body and head. You could see the fight being taken out of Farmer from the storm of shots Zepeda hit him with.
The judges scores:
– 95-94: Zepeda
– 95-94: Zepeda
– 95-94: Farmer.
Farmer was bitter after the fight, saying, “The knockdown edged 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 was hitting Farmer with, and they also didn’t note that Tevin was holding frequently.
The referee, Harvey Dock, should have penalized the excessive holding because he was affecting the flow of the fight. It wasn’t occasional holding. This was nonstop.
Final Punch Stats
William Zepeda connected on 259 of 778 shots for a 33.3%.
Tevin Farmer connected in 193 of 587 shots for a 32.9%.
In the final three rounds, Farmer’s body language looked like that of a fatigued fighter, as he was exhausted from the pace Zepeda had forced on him. He couldn’t hold as much because Zepeda was wrestling out of the clinches and landing short body punches that further wore down the American.
With the win, Zepeda will next challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22nd in Riyadh. Of course, Shakur will need to make it through training camp without suffering a setback with his surgically repaired right hand.
Zepeda throws non stop punches I never fought a pressure fighter in the pros that doesn’t stop puncher, This gone be fun!
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) November 16, 2024
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