By Jimmy James: Mexican star William Zepeda will face unranked boxer Tevin Farmer on November 16 in Saudi Arabia for no other reason than to keep his undefeated record intact. No one asked Zepeda to fight Giovanni Cabrera one fight before, and no one asked Zepeda to fight Farmer now.
The farmer is out of his prime and does not pose serious challenges to the style of Zepeda, who has beaten nothing but tomato cans along the way avoiding tough battles with the exception of Joseph Diaz Jr.
Zepeda could have fought against Lucas Bahdi, Andy Cruz, Frank Martin, Kid Austin, Edwin De Los Santos, Keyshawn Davis, Shakur Stevenson, Gustavo Lemos, among other dangerous boxers in his division. Instead, he and his team waited for boxers like Keyshawn to take on Lemos, so Zepeda could “breathe hard” another day by choosing the weakest option available.
Zepeda doesn’t want to take serious challenges because he doesn’t want to expose his terrible defense and poor footwork against boxers with a better IQ and ring technique. It would mark the end of Jay Panda’s training career losing against an unknown and dangerous opponent like Badhi, who just beat the American prospect Ashton Sylve via KO.
If Steve Claggett had been protected like Zepeda, he would have become a superstar in Mexico overnight. Claggett and Zepeda fight almost identically with the same boxing style. I would bet my house that the Canadian even beats Zepeda’s breaks for a fight of the year contest.
There’s a reason why Zepeda keeps ducking the top rising opponents in his division. He wants to throw up against a fighter like Gervonta Davis and then disappear from the public eye to become a newspaper or maybe a watchdog like Claggett.
Robert Garcia revealed in an interview that Zepeda turned down an offer to fight Raymond Muratalla. The Mexican was even offered a fight according to his trainer Panda for $1M to fight Stevenson about a year ago which his team turned down!
Turki Al-Sheikh tried several times to break an agreement with Oscar De LaHoya, but Zepeda’s team knew that he was not ready to face an opponent like Stevenson, Gervonta Davis or Vasyl Lomachenko.
Zepeda has become another Canelo Alvarez ducking opponents left and right. Golden Boy is heaven for ducks who don’t want to lose their undefeated record against tough opponents, even if it means destroying their entire careers by fighting seniors and guards to get a shot at a money fight. The current state of boxing is sad and terrible.
