Lightweight buzzsaw William Zepeda needs one more victory to start seizing the career-defining fights he has been seeking.
Zepeda, 31-0 (27 KOs, will take on former 130-pound titleholder Tevin Farmer, 33-6-1 (8 KOs), on Saturday for the WBC interim lightweight title on the undercard of Golden Boy Promotions’ “Latino Night” event in Saudi Arabia.
If Zepeda, who is ranked No. 1 by all four major sanctioning bodies, wins, he’d set himself up for a long-discussed matchup against the WBC’s 135-pound champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22.
“God willing we are victorious in this fight, we are ready to fight Shakur,” Zepeda told BoxingScene through a Spanish translator.
“We know that Tevin Farmer has a lot of good qualities. He has a similar style to Shakur, but I’m not worried about Shakur right now. I have to be careful with Tevin. He’s a fighter with great ability. He is a great counterpuncher. I know that if I can beat Farmer convincingly, the people are going to ask for the Shakur fight.”
Zepeda realizes that should he stun Stevenson, the boxing public would be calling for him to fight WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“I believe that Davis is the more complicated fighter than Stevenson,” said Zepeda. “He has youth, strength, intelligence and experience, and I would love to fight him and show who I am, the quality of my fighting, and what I am capable of doing. If I beat Shakur, everyone is going to want me to fight Tank, and that’s what I want to do, too.”
Zepeda, a 28-year-old Mexican southpaw, has had a strong year so far, stopping Maxi Hughes in four rounds in March and Giovanni Cabrera inside three rounds in July.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.