Lightweight William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) defeated Tune Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) via a 10-round split decision to win the WBC interim 135-lb title on Saturday night. Overcame the surprising knock. Location in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Farmer, 34, caught Zepeda with a left hand in round four that dropped him to the canvas. The punch caught Zepeda as he was about to strike, and he never saw it coming. This was the high point of Farmer’s fight, which Zepeda outlasted in every round.
The judges were impressed with the hard, clean shots that Farmer occasionally caught Zepeda with, but all rounds were dominated by the Mexican fighter. Even in the fourth, which was Farmer’s best round, Zepeda outshot him by a large margin, hitting him with body shots. The physical work that Zepeda did was overlooked by the judges. So they made the fight much closer than it should have been.
After Zepeda fell in the fourth, he turned up the heat on Farmer, throwing punches non-stop and forcing him to survive. Much of the last six rounds of the bout involved Kisan stopping Zepeda’s offense as he worked to the body and head. You could see the fight being taken out of Farmer by the flurry of bullets that Zepeda hit him with.
The judges scored it:
– 95-94: Zapida
– 95-94: Zapida
95-94: Farmer.
Farmer was bitter after the fight, saying, “The knockdown put it over the edge for me.” That one knockdown from Farmer didn’t negate the way Zepeda outplayed him in every round of the fight. Again, the judges didn’t give Zepeda credit for the body shots he was hitting Farmer with, and they also didn’t note that Tune was catching often. Referee Harvey Dock should have been penalized for excessive holding as it was affecting the flow of the fight. This was not an occasional occurrence. It was non-stop.
With the win, Zepeda will next challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22 in Riyadh. Of course, Shakur will need to make it through training camp without surgically repairing his right hand.
Zapida throws non stop punches I’ve never fought a pressure fighter that doesn’t block a puncher, it’s been fun!
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakorStevenson) November 16, 2024
