Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero minimized WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson’s win over William Zepeda as overhyped by fans due to Zepeda’s lack of power.
(Credit: Golden Boy)
Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) has been praised for his bravery by fighting Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) in the pocket rather than running as many had expected him to do. Rolly pointed out the obvious. Zepeda can’t punch.
Stevenson’s Comfort Against Zepeda
So, Stevenson felt comfortable being stationary against him. Romero said it would have been a different story if Shakur had fought a guy with huge power. He would have had to move all night like he did against Edwin De Los Santos and Jeremia Nakathilia.
“It was a great performance, but the dude has no power,” said Rolly Romero to Boxing News, diminishing Shakur Stevenson’s win over the non-puncher William Zepeda last Saturday night in Queens.
Shakur’s win over Zepeda wasn’t that spectacular of a performance because he got hit plenty to the body. The Mexican brawler couldn’t miss when throwing body shots. However, Zepeda’s accuracy when throwing headshots was poor due to Stevenson craning his head back to avoid his missiles.
What kept the fight from being close on the scorecards is that the judges didn’t give Zepeda credit for hitting Shakur to the body. Those punches were ignored in favor of Stevenson’s potshots.
“William has one of the highest punch outputs in boxing. Anyone who has to throw 100 punches a round to stop you has no power. My niece can punch me 100 times in the face, and I’d be sleeping. Real punchers only need one or two punches, and you’re out cold. So, he just didn’t fight a puncher,” said Rolly about Shakur.
Zepeda still had enough pop in his punches to hurt Shakur because he had him stunned in the third round. He just didn’t have the ring IQ to get close enough to Stevenson that would have enabled him to land the headshots.
