Shakur Stevenson vs. William Zepeda results, highlights: Champion retains title with impressive performance
After being criticized for several recent fights in which he was considered to be a boring style fighter, in particular by drawing hooks and debraying of the live crowd, Shakur Stevenson entered the title of light WBC of Saturday promising to bring the fight to William Zepeda. Stevenson held this promise, going aside with Zepeda more than 12 rounds to make an entertaining unanimous decision as the main co-event of the Louis Armstrong stadium in Queens, New York.
Zepeda is known as an action fighter, constantly advancing and throwing a constant damage. In this way, he was the ideal opponent to get the fight out of Stevenson and rehabilitate the image of the champion, at least for a night.
Zepeda’s biggest moment came when he injured Stevenson in the third round with a power stroke while Stevenson was sitting along the strings. Stevenson finally retaliated, smiling the challenger and recognizing that he was in a real fight.
The fight continued to play with Stevenson gladly working in the strings and the corner, where he became a battle for the gusts of shots of Zepeda and Stevenson who seek to punch and land the hard couples. When the fight was far from the strings, it was all Stevenson, who landed good combinations with precision.
Near the point halfway through the fight, Stevenson began to stand in the middle of the ring, allowing himself to descend with punches and heavy while Zepeda was fighting to gather more than the occasional burst.
Stevenson continued to move away in the second half of the fight, but Zepeda had a lot of moments when he was able to build the rope fight, allowing him to get rid of Stevenson’s body.
In the end, Stevenson’s quality and precision were simply too good against Zepeda’s animated efforts and the final dashboards read 118-110, 118-110, 119-109, all for Stevenson.
“I came here to prove a point. It was not the performance I was looking for,” said Stevenson about his victory. “I took more punishment than usual. Anyway to do the job. I have a dog in me, I am not a poodle. … I have proven that I am a dog. It was one of the most tough fighters in the world at 135 pounds.”
