Tim Bradley reckons top-ranked lightweight William Zepeda could be defeated by Tevin Farmer next month in their ten-round ‘Latino Night’ fight on November 16 at The Venue in Riyadh.
Farmer, 34, (33-6-1, 8 KOs) is a former IBF super featherweight champion who lost a ten-round unanimous decision to Raymond Muratalla on July 13 in Paradise, Nevada.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson is expected to follow Zepeda if he wins against Farmer and looks good doing it. If he loses, that fight is off the table.
Zepeda has looked impressive lately, scoring knockouts in these fighters:
– Giovanni Cabrera
– Maxi Hughes
– Mercito Gesta
– Jaime Arboleda
I’d rather Hughes and Cabrera than Farmer. Those guys were going to be a big problem for him in his career. Analyst Bradley believes Farmer is good enough at this point in his 13-year career to defeat Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs). I don’t agree with that.
This will be another demolition job for Zepeda that will likely end in the fourth unless Farmer keeps moving. That’s not how the Farmer fights.
That would be a huge blow to the Golden Boy promoted Zepeda’s career as he is ranked #1 in all four lightweight sanctioning bodies and is set to challenge WBC champion Shakur Stevenson next February.
“If Zepeda can fire Farmer, it’s a very good statement because I don’t think Farmer just comes on payday. The farmer still shows to win. The way he is built and the character he has. He is not naive, and when he appears in the ring, he shows victory,” said Paulie Malignaggi on Probox TV, talking about William Zepeda’s fight against Tevin Farmer on November 16th ‘Latino Night’ in Riyadh.
Before Farmer’s loss to hotshot Raymond Muratalla last July, he had won three straight since losing to Joseph Diaz in 2020. Farmer is still in his prime. But his problem is that he is fighting outside his natural weight class and a big puncher in Zepeda.
“I like this fight because it can show us the lack of Zepeda’s style. Yes, he’s a two-fisted destroyer, but would he be much of a match against a guy with the cunning and character of Tevin Farmer? That’s why this fight is really fun,” said Malignaggi.
Farmer will make Zepeda look bad at times this morning, but once he warms up for the third, this will be over soon. Farmer can’t take the shots that Zepeda fires at him without going down.
“He expects Zepeda to win because Farmer is on the other side of his first games,” said Malignaggi. “But you don’t expect it to go as slowly as Zepeda has been doing to these other guys.
“If he can blow up Farmer like he did for these other guys, that makes a deep statement. He breaks down the door looking for a header. He is mandatory in all four [sanctioning bodies]. So the title should be close soon,” said Malignaggi about Zepeda.
“This may backfire. “I know what Golden Boy is trying to do, but Farmer has tricks,” said Tim Bradley, who thinks Zepeda may lose. “This guy might win this fight. I could see.”
Nothing Farmer has is going to stop Zepeda from breaking him down and picking him apart early in this fight. Farmer is too weak to fight at lightweight against a puncher like Zepeda.
“Zepeda is a type of shrimp [Mantis] that kills you. I saw it on one of the National Geographic specials,” said Malignaggi, referring to Zepeda’s nickname, ‘Camaron.’ “Zepeda is one of those types of shrimp. He is a striker. I’m not big on science, but there is a shrimp that is a certain death [Mantis Shrimp]. I’m talking about the shrimp where you die. Zepeda is that type of shrimp.”
Zepeda shouldn’t have any problems with the 34-year-old Farmer, but it will take him a few rounds to warm up before he starts pouring in combinations.
Source link
