Tevin Farmer says Shakur Stevenson will have to “fight” William Zepeda to win because he throws a lot of punches to avoid them all.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur will fight Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) in 2025, provided he successfully defends his title against Floyd Schofield on February 22 in Riyadh. Shakur is confident he can beat Zepeda, but Farmer has his doubts.
Zepeda’s Volume Punching
He obviously knows that Stevenson’s hit-and-run style won’t stop Zepeda because he cuts the ring well, and is willing to take the shot to hit his own. Shakur is not strong at all, and will not be able to escape from Zepeda without running.
That won’t work. He will look bad in front of Turki Alalshikh if he tries that trick on Zepeda in Riyadh.
With Zepeda’s high volume output of 100+ punches per round, Farmer says Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) will have to fight him like he did in their bout last month on November 16. Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) tried to defend against the bullets. many of Zepeda’s, but to no avail.
Farmer, who was the IBF super featherweight champion, was forced to fight with him, and he could not continue, especially in the championship rounds.
Zepeda wore Farmer down with his body shots and volume to win a 10-round split decision. The scores were 95-95, 95-94 for Zepeda, and 95-94 for Farmer. I watched the fight and found Zepeda to win 8-2. It seems that the judges who worked on this fight did not agree with the number of bullets that Zepeda was shooting in all the rounds. They were just looking at the heads, the Farmer focused on them.
Had it been a 12-round contest he would have knocked Farmer out because the 34-year-old was exhausted in the ninth round and would not have gone twelve rounds without a stoppage.
“Golden Boy is determined to succeed. The only way a rematch won’t happen is if Zepeda’s team doesn’t agree,” said Tevin Farmer on the Cigar Talk channel about the rematch he wants from William Zepeda after losing to him on November 16.
“Golden Boy wants to repeat. I’m not saying no one told me anything. I say Golden Boy wants to do a repeat. I’m sure Turki wants to succeed. It was hell.
“You’ve got to get Zepeda to respect you, because if you don’t, he’s going to keep going forward,” Farmer said when asked how Shakur Stevenson would fare against William Zepeda.
Farmer’s hopes of rematching Zepeda are a dream because Golden Boy will not push for that fight. They know that the money fight, which Zepeda needs and wants, is against Shakur. The farmer has nothing to give Zepeda. He is not a champion and has lost his last two fights.
Farmer needs to go back to super featherweight because he doesn’t have the power to beat the lightweights. If he stays in the 135-lb weight class, he will continue to lose and will be forced out of the match.
Shakur Warned About Zepeda
“Zepeda is a fighter, and he didn’t throw so many punches; it is easy to choose such a person,” said Mlimi. “It’s easy to choose someone who doesn’t throw so many punches. If someone comes forward and throws how many punches, how many punches can you make someone miss, even if I’m defending myself?
“I am one of the best defenders of the war. I can stand there and not hit if I want. I know I can’t do that because how many punches can I slip? Yes, Shakur will have to fight [Zepeda]. “Shakur, to me, is one of the best players in the world, but he’s going to have to fight,” Farmer said.
Zepeda forced Farmer to fight him because he was cutting him off the ring and locking him in the ropes. It is possible that the Farmer should fight, even if Zepeda has been eliminated. It will be the same with Shakur. He doesn’t have the strength, stamina, or courage that the Cultivator has. There’s no way Stevenson was going to be able to take the kind of shots Farmer did against Zepeda without a hit or a run and catch.
“I’m not saying that he should do what I did. I was built differently. I got a chin, I can deliver, and I can do all that. I don’t mean him [Shakur] don’t do it, but he’s going to have to fight,” said Farmer on how he’s better than Stevenson because he’ll actually stand in the pocket and be willing to sell.
“I feel like I should have gotten the win. For the knockdown, that was the icing on the cake for me to pull off. “Everybody has an opinion, but I don’t care,” said Farmer about his belief that he did enough to win against Zepeda.
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