In a well-fought battle, Stevenson outlasted Zepeda's relentlessness to a win by unanimous decision.
The co-feature of Saturday's boxing card in New York had some fire, as Shakur Stevenson defended his WBC lightweight title by unanimous decision in a brilliant back-and-forth fight against William Zepeda. A relentless Zepeda put up his best effort, but Stevenson's technicality won out to help him retain his title.
The final scores were 118-110, 118-110 and 119-109, all in Stevenson's favor.
Saturday's fight was a game of offense vs. defense. Stevenson, who is known for his heavily defensive style, started off the bout by dancing away from the aggressive-swinging Zepeda. Though Stevenson was more efficient, Zepeda was able to control the pace, forcing Stevenson to engage with the fight.
In the third, fourth and fifth rounds, Zepeda cornered Stevenson into the ropes, getting in a few huge jabs. But Stevenson eventually pulled back into the center of the ring, staying technical and efficient with his blows. Zepeda continued to be relentless, throwing nearly four times as many punches as Stevenson, but keeping up with the fight with a shocking amount of endurance.
The two exchanged several key combinations, but Stevenson started to pull away as Zepeda's relentlessness began to flag. Though the first six rounds were incredibly close, Stevenson was able to shift and retain momentum to retain his title.
Stevenson, who has held the lightweight title since 2023, was the clear favorite heading into Saturday's fight. He sits at 10th in Uncrowned's pound-for-pound rankings, compared to unranked Zepeda, and is a fast, wily fighter with a defensive mindset.
But, as expected, Saturday's fight was one of Stevenson’s biggest challenges to date. Both Stevenson and Zepeda were undefeated heading into Saturday's fight, with Zepeda boasting significantly more knockouts than Stevenson as a result of his aggressive approach.
The meeting of two polar opposite styles was also poignant, given that Stevenson's style has drawn some recent criticism for not being as entertaining. But Stevenson has been unapologetic about the way he fights.
"I don't care about that s***," he told Uncrowned on Friday, citing, in part, his safety in terms of injury. "I'm coming in there to fight my fight, and at times I will be toe-to-toe with him [when I want to be]."
Clearly, it works: The 28-year-old was able to keep up the counterattack against Zepeda’s persistent strikes to pull off the win.
After retaining his WBC lightweight title, Stevenson may now look to his next challenge — including potentially trying to set up a fight with WBA lightweight title holder Gervonta "Tank" Davis.
Category: General Sports
