Posted on 09/17/2023By: Sean Crose
Undefeated light-weight William Zepeda squared off in opposition to well-liked veteran Mercito Gesta Saturday evening in Commerce, California. Their scheduled twelve rounder was the primary occasion of a Golden Boy card broadcast reside on DAZN. Coming in at 27 years of age, and with a 28-0 document, the rising and onerous hitting (all however 4 of his fights had ended by knockout) Zepeda was was clearly the favourite, however the 34-3-3 Gesta’s earlier bout had ended with a shocking win over Joseph Diaz. The query, then, was might the 35 12 months previous Filipino ship one other upset on Saturday evening?
The primary spherical noticed every fighter attempting to dictate the tempo – Gesta with an out and in technique and Zepeda by means of aggression behind an efficient jab. Each fighters determined to do battle within the proverbial cellphone sales space within the second. Toe to toe, they engaged in excessive octane, extended infighting. It was Zepeda’s physique work, nonetheless, which appeared to be doing the better quantity of injury. Within the third, Zepeda launched such a livid assault that it was value questioning if Gesta would go down or Zepeda would run out of gasoline.
Zepeda continued to make use of his energy punching technique within the fourth whereas Gesta in some way remained on his ft. Having been bloodied within the earlier spherical, Gesta appeared to double his efforts to keep away from Zepeda within the fifth. He couldn’t do it. Zepeda saved bulling in, firing energy shot after energy shot. With the relentless beating persevering with into the sixth, Gesta’s nook properly stepped in and stopped the battle. Credit score belonged to Gesta for his braveness and unimaginable endurance (he by no means went down). The evening, nonetheless, definitely belonged to the very spectacular Zepeda.
“I’m prepared for Devin Haney,” Zepeda stated after the battle. A battle between he and Haney would certainly by fascinating. Haney, in spite of everything, is an extremely slick and polished ring practitioner whereas Zepeda is all efficient aggression. Ought to Haney depart the light-weight division within the mud, nonetheless, there are nonetheless loads of large title opponents for Zepeda to presumably face, Teofimo Lopez, George Kambosos, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Shakur Stevenson to say only a few. The reality is that Zepeda might very effectively be hassle for every a type of people, which is why his title now must part of the divisional dialog.
The light-weight division definitely could also be loaded, however after Saturday evening, it’s time for Zepeda to be thought of amongst it’s higher echelon.
*Picture: Golden Boy