Fight Week: Punching machine William Zepeda set to face Maxi Hughes
FIGHT WEEK
Top 135-pound contender William Zepeda is scheduled to face slick Maxi Hughes in a title eliminator Saturday in Las Vegas.
WILLIAM ZEPEDA (29-0, 25 KOs)
VS. MAXI HUGHES (26-6-2, 5 KOs)
Date: Saturday, March 16
Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
Where: The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas
TV/Stream: DAZN
Division: Lightweight (135 pounds)
At stake: No major titles
Pound-for-pound: None
Odds: Zepeda 6-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
Significance (up to five stars): ***
Also on the card: Floyd Schofield vs. Esteuri Suero, lightweights; Marlen Esparza vs. Gabriela Alaniz, flyweights (for Esparza’s WBA, WBC and WBO titles); Victor Morales vs. Luis Reynado Nunez, featherweights
Background: Zepeda is hot on the heels of the top 135-pounders after a series of impressive performances. The volume-punching, powerful 27-year-old southpaw from Mexico is coming off his biggest victory, a brutal sixth-round knockout of former top contender Mercito Gesta in September. That followed a near-shutout victory over former 130-pound champ Joseph Diaz in October 2022 and a second-round stoppage over Jaime Arboleda last April. Zepeda threw a division-record 1,536 punches in the Diaz fight, according to CompuBox. He’s ranked in the Top 5 of all major sanctioning bodies, No. 1 by both the WBA and WBC. His fight with Hughes is being billed as a title eliminator for the IBF and WBA. Hughes, a 33-year-old southpaw from the U.K., is a good boxer with limited power. He gave a strong performance against former 135-pound titleholder George Kambosos Jr. in his most recent fight last July, losing a disputed majority decision. That effort evidently earned him a shot at Zepeda. He had won his previous seven fights, including a majority decision over capable Kid Galahad in September 2022.
ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK
WEDNESDAY
Radivoje Kalajdzic vs. Sullivan Barrera, light heavyweights, Plant City, Florida (ProBox TV)
Sam Goodman vs. Mark Schleibs, junior featherweights, Wollongong, Australia (no TV in U.S.)
FRIDAY
Callum Walsh vs. Dauren Yeleussinov, junior middleweights, New York (UFC Fight Pass)
SATURDAY
Nathan Heaney vs. Brad Pauls, middleweights, Birmingham, England (ESPN+)