Undefeated light-weight contender William Zepeda. Photograph by Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
William Zepeda didn’t waste any time along with his assigned activity or in narrowing down his subsequent said goal.
The highest-rated light-weight contender effortlessly solved the artful Giovanni Cabrera, whom he knocked out within the third spherical. One other physique punching show finally did the trick, as Cabrera took the complete ten rely at 1:58 of spherical three Saturday at Toyota Enviornment in Ontario, California.
The DAZN-aired light-weight bout was means to maintain Zepeda energetic as he awaits an extended overdue title shot. With the win, he has now issued the marching orders to his crew.
“Let’s go after the Ukrainian,” Zepeda advised DAZN’s Chris Mannix by translator and head coach Jacob ‘Panda’ Najar. “I need to struggle WBO champion Denys Berinchyk subsequent.”
The struggle can be simple to implement; Zepeda (31-0, 27 knockouts) is the number-one ranked light-weight amongst all 4 main sanctioning our bodies. He’s The Ring’s No. 3-rated light-weight, solely behind WBA titlist Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) and IBF titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs).
Berinchyk (19-0. 9 KOs), No. 5 at 135, defeated Emanuel Navarrete (38-2-1, 31 KOs) through twelve-round resolution to win the title on Could 18 in San Diego.
Nonetheless, there was a struggle to win earlier than he may transfer on to the title image.
Cabrera (22-2, 7 KOs) got here to do what he does finest—trigger suits for his opponents. The Chicago-bred southpaw managed to outthrow the usually high-volume Zepeda within the opening spherical. The accuracy wasn’t fairly there, although Cabrera landed a few good left palms.
Zepeda was nonetheless the extra correct puncher and rapidly tailored to Cabrera’s awkward fashion.
A vicious physique punching show turned the tide in spherical two for the 28-year-old southpaw from San Mateo Atenco, Mexico. The strategy was not dissimilar to how Zepeda was capable of break down and cease England’s Maxi Hughes after 4 rounds of their March 16 WBA/IBF title eliminator. Cabrera provided barely extra resistant throughout these moments—till he couldn’t.
Zepeda dialed up the stress in spherical three. Cabrera was on the defensive as Zepeda continued to throw and land downstairs. A follow-up two-punch mixture upstairs completed the job as Cabrera was compelled to a knee.
Referee Thomas Taylor reached ten simply as Cabrera halfheartedly tried to beat the rely.
“Each time I touched him, I knew I harm him,” insisted Zepeda. “Every time I landed he took a step again. I knew it was only a matter of time earlier than I completed him.”
Cabrera’s solely different defeat got here in a slender break up resolution to Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz final July 29 in Las Vegas. Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) went on to assert the WBA junior welterweight title earlier this yr.
In the meantime, Zepeda has referred to as for his subsequent struggle to return with {hardware} at stake.
“I need all 4 champions,” claimed Zepeda . “I’ve already performed my work. It’s time for Oscar De La Hoya to do his homework and make these fights occur.”
The message was obtained loud and clear by his Corridor of Fame promoter.
“William Zepeda is primary in each group,” De La Hoya mentioned. “The WBO champion is a comparatively simple struggle to make. We are going to pursue that after which in all probability down the road, fairly before later, we’ll go up towards Shakur Stevenson.”
