On Saturday, William Zepeda (30-0, 26 KOs), a pure knockout machine, took on the dominant Maxi Hughes (26-7-2) in an IBF/WBA lightweight title eliminator at Cosmopolitan. , 5KO) and won by TKO in the 4th round. of Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old was forced to leave in Hughes' corner at the end of the fourth round after the latter unleashed a flurry of shots during the round.
They were ready to stop the fight mid-round when Hughes was bombarded with Zepeda's non-stop punches and was unable to defend him. Surprisingly, Hughes made it out of the round without going down or being stopped by the referee, but he was in poor health.
Had Hughes' corner gotten him into the fifth round, it would have been crazy considering he was badly beaten, his face swollen and red, and it looked like there was no fight left. .
Hughes stood right in front of Zepeda in the first two rounds and continued to fight head-to-head. Interestingly, Hughes did not use his movement to try to stay out of Zepeda's attack range, but he may have realized that it would not work.
Zepeda is too good at cutting rounds, so the only fighter who can keep him away would be a highly mobile fighter like Shakur Stevenson. But even Shakur will have a lot of trouble keeping himself from falling into Zepeda's trap and getting drained.
In the third round, Hughes was machine-gunned by Zepeda for the entire three minutes, especially the last 30 seconds. He took a lot of punishment that round. Hughes' right eye was red from a shot he absorbed during the round.
After the fight, Zepeda said he would like to challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson or WBA “regular” champion Gervonta Davis next. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya agreed, saying he would like either fighter for Zepeda.
In the co-starring bout, No. 4 WBA lightweight Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) defeated Esteuri Suero (13-2, 5 KOs) by disqualification in the fifth round. The bout was stopped at 2:07 of the fifth round after Suero landed a low blow on the 21-year-old Schofield.
Suergo lost points in the second and fourth rounds due to rough tactics. In the second round Schofield injured his right eye in a collision of his heads.
