Unbeaten lightweight contender William Zepeda will be fighting this summer against Giovanni Cabrera on July 6th on DAZN.
Golden Boy’s Rising Star
The Golden Boy-promoted Zepeda (30-0, 26 KOs) will be risking his #1 IBF mandatory spot against Cabrera (22-1, 7 KOs). Zepeda, 27, is the mandatory for newly crowned IBF 135-lb champion Vasily Lomachenko.
Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN Knockout is reporting on the Zepeda vs. Cabrera fight.
Zepeda recently called out WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson for a fight following his fourth-round knockout victory over Maxi Hughes last March. Unfortunately, the fight failed to materialize.
So, Zepeda is now fighting Cabrera in what will likely be the main event on July 6th. DAZN’s decision to put Zepeda vs. Cabrera on the same night as the ESPN event headlined by Shakur vs. Artem Harutyunyan means that some of the fans who would have tuned into that fight will be siphoned off by the DAZN event.
The pressure fighter Zepeda has looked outstanding in his last four fights, beating Maxi Hughes, Mercito Gesta, Jaime Arboleda, and Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz. He seems to be getting better with every performance.
With Zepeda being the IBF mandatory for Lomachenko’s lightweight title, it’ll be interesting to see if he eventually gets a title shot against him before he retires.
It’s unlikely that Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank will want to do Golden Boy any favors by letting Zepeda get a title shot against him because he’s with another network, and he’s not a big enough name to make it worthwhile to do a dual network broadcast.
Cabrera: A Formidable Opponent
Cabrera, 29, suffered his only career defeat last year in July, losing to Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz by a 12-round split decision. He gave Cruz massive problems, but at the tail end of the fight, Cabrera gassed out, and that’s when his shorter opponent came on to edge him.
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