William Zepeda (29-0, 25 KOs) is expected to defeat the hapless Maxi Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs) this Saturday night, March 16th, in the DAZN headliner at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. is.
Hughes, 34, brings a lot of experience to this fight, but he faced a walking guillotine in Zepeda, and that doesn't bode well for him.Defeat George Kambosos Jr. [and being robbed] It was a great start for Hughes, but he will have to do more than that to beat a talent like Zepeda.
Zepeda is being groomed to be Oscar De La Hoya's next “golden boy” and was looking for a successor to fill the vacancy left by Canelo Alvarez, who left the promotion in 2020.
Golden Boy fighters Ryan Garcia and Virgil Ortiz couldn't step into Canelo's shoes as the next star after De La Hoya, but Zepeda could be that star.
So, can Hughes accomplish the impossible?
Short answer: no. Zepeda is light years ahead of Hughes in the talent department, and she's shown the ability to die if the 34-year-old Maxi wants to get her hands on one. Her Zepeda powers will likely send Hughes to the other side of the galaxy, into the Milky Way's galactic halo, on Saturday night.
The outcome of a Zepeda vs. Hughes fight is so predictable that it's almost boring. The only chance that Hughes won't get knocked out by the KO machine Zepeda is if he loses interest and lets him hang around for 12 rounds as a practice dummy, or if he feels sorry for him.
Seeing the way the judge took money from Hughes against Kambosos Jr., Zepeda may have some sympathy.
I predict that the Zepeda TKO-6 may be too forgiving. Hughes has no chance. The only real drama is whether he can get through the halfway point of the contest before Zepeda reaches his soft hind legs.
Pleasant elements that do not change the result
Hughes has come a long way in his career, rising from obscurity with some notable wins and a string of accomplishments at Kambosos Junior last July. He'll be the ultimate underdog against Zepeda on Saturday, and he's a fighter you can't help but root for. If this were a movie, Hughes would pull off a miraculous upset and be carried out of the ring by his fans.
Then Saudi Arabia would throw a ton of dough at Hughes to make him headline a show in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, this is no fantasy, and what makes for great pretend play doesn't translate into real life. Zepeda has everything wrong for Hughes and will ruin his chances of competing for a world title.
Hughes' smart defensive skills should make the fight an interesting two or three rounds as he defeats Zepeda, a seek-and-destroy pressure fighter. However, the power of Mexican knockout artist Zepeda gradually wore Hughes down, taking away the fight round after round.
By the sixth, Hughes would be in the fight and Zepeda would finish him off, forcing a referee or corner stop. Again, prediction: Zepeda by TKO around the 6th round.
