After facing criticism for several recent fights in which he was seen as fighting a boring style, including drawing boos and walkouts from live crowds, Shakur Stevenson entered Saturday’s WBC lightweight title fight promising to bring the fight to William Zepeda. Stevenson delivered on that promise, going toe-to-toe with Zepeda over 12 rounds to take an entertaining unanimous decision as the co-main event from the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
Zepeda is known as an action fighter, constantly moving forward and throwing a constant barrage of punches. In that way, he was the ideal opponent to bring the fight out in Stevenson and rehabilitate the champion’s image, at least for one night.
Zepeda’s biggest moment came when he hurt Stevenson in the third round with a power jab as Stevenson sat along the ropes. Stevenson eventually fired back, smiling at the challenger and acknowledging that he was in a real fight.
The fight continued to play out with Stevenson willingly getting worked back into the ropes and corner, where it became a battle of Zepeda’s flurries of shots and Stevenson looking to slip punches and land hard counter punches. When the fight was away from the ropes, it was all Stevenson, who landed good combinations with accuracy.
Near the midway point of the fight, Stevenson started to stand his ground in the middle of the ring, allowing himself to get off with clean, heavy punches while Zepeda struggled to put together more than the occasional flurry.
Stevenson continued to pull away in the second half of the fight, but Zepeda had plenty of moments where he was able to muscle the fight back to the ropes, allowing him to tee off on Stevenson’s body.
In the end, Stevenson’s quality and accuracy was simply too good against Zepeda’s spirited effort and the final scorecards read 118-110, 118-110, 119-109, all for Stevenson.
“I came here to prove a point. It wasn’t the performance I was looking for,” Stevenson said of his victory. “I took more punishment than usual. Whatever it takes to get the job done. I’ve got dog in me, I’m not no poodle. … I proved that I’m a dog. That was one of the toughest fighters in the world at 135 pounds.”
