Shakur Stevenson proved exactly why he is regarded as one of the best fighters in the world with a dominant performance on Saturday.
Stevenson had already reached the top of two divisions in his career before heading to 135lbs, having claimed world honours at both featherweight and super-featherweight.
Since moving to lightweight, Stevenson has received criticism though, with some fans unhappy with his fighting style and arguably subpar performances against the likes of Edwin De Los Santos and Artem Harutyunyan.
Potentially with those critics in mind, the reigning WBC lightweight champion appeared keen to make a statement against Zepeda over the weekend, putting in a more fan-friendly style but still dominating the majority of the action throughout the entire fight.
It went the 12-round distance, with the judges scoring it 119-109, 118-110 and 118-110 as he successfully made the third defence of the title that he won back in November 2023. The wide scores, in the eyes of many, didn’t do justice to Zepeda’s performance, but there were no arguments that Stevenson won clearly.
The official CompuBox punch stats from the fight helped to display the work from Stevenson, as out of 979 attempted punches that Zepeda threw, he was only able to connect with 272 of them, meaning he was made to miss on over 700 occasions.
The challenger is to be commended too, however, landing more on Stevenson than any opponent in the past and displaying an incredible work rate, as he is known for.
As for Stevenson – who appeared to decide against utilising the movement he is known for in order to make it a more compelling bout – he was much more successful on the target, landing 295 of the 565 shots that he attempted, a ratio of over 50%.
After proving he is main event material, Stevenson has already made it clear who he is targeting next following his victory, again reaffirming his desire to secure a unification showdown with long-term rival and WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis.
