Unbeaten William Zepeda (28-0, 24 KOs) obliterated Jaime Arboleda (19-3, 14 KOs), dropping him three times with body shots en route to scoring a second knockout on Saturday night at the College Park Center at The University of Texas at Arlington campus. The fight was halted at 2:16.
In the first knockdown, Zepeda trapped Arboleda against the ropes and landed a hard left to the liver that dropped him hard.
When Arboleda got back up, it was clear that he was hurt bad and unlikely to make it out of the round unless a miracle happened.
Unfortunately for Arboleda, there were no miracles, as Zepeda jumped on him right away, firing punches with both hands to knock him down a second time.
Undercard results for tonight’s Zepeda vs. Arboleda card:
In a surprising upset, undefeated featherweight Victor Morales (18-0, 8 KOs) defeated Diego De La Hoya (24-2, 11 KOs) by a second round knockout in the chief support bout that had been scheduled for ten rounds.
Morales, 25, knocked De La Hoya with a beautiful left hook to the head. A bleeding De La Hoya barely made it up to beat the count. Instead of playing it safe, De La Hoya went toe-to-toe with Morales, with both fighters firing high-speed combinations.
Morales caught De La Hoya with another big left hook that put him down for the second time. De La Hoya was too hurt to get back up and was counted out by the referee. The official time of the stoppage was 1:08 of round two.
The way that the 28-year-old De La Hoya was beaten tonight, it would be a good idea for him to steer clear of attempting to avenge his loss to Morales.
Welterweight Frederick Lawson (30-3, 22 KOs) went to war tonight with pressure-fighter Estevan Villalobos (16-2-1, 12 KOs), beating him by a ten round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 96-94, 96-94, and 97-93.
Villalobos had Lawson on the brink of being knocked out in the tenth round, but couldn’t finish the job. Lawson got on his bike and made it out of the round. In the eighth, Villalobos was cut under his left in the final seconds of the round.
In round seven, Villalobos hurt Lawson with a right hand and landed many beautiful combinations to the head. Through most of the fight, Villalobos had Lawson up against the ropes, but he was getting countered much of the time by the 33-year-old Ghanian.
Undefeated super middleweight David Stevens (13-0, 9 KOs) had to battle hard to beat 38-year-old former world title challenger Marco Antonio Periban (26-7, 17 KOs) in a competitive eight round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 78-73, 78-73, and 77-74.
The 22-year-old Stevens was loading up with everything he threw, which allowed the taller fighter Periban to time him and land countershots.
Periban got the worst of it in rounds one through four, but he came on strong in the last three rounds to give Stevens huge problems with his craftiness and long right hands.
Overall, it was a good effort from Periban and showed that he still has a lot left in the tank.
Cruiserweight prospect Tristan Kalkreuth (10-1, 7 KOs) put in a workmanlike performance, beating Jonathan Rice (2-3, 2 KOs) by a six round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 59-55, 59-55, and 59-55.
Preview: The Panamanian Arboleda (19-2, 14 KOs) is moving up from super featherweight to take this fight with Zepeda, and he will have to be at his best to compete tonight.
Zepeda, 26, is a high-volume, pressure fighter, who works his way to the inside, and then unloads with nonstop combinations. His volume punching style is reminiscent of former light welterweight champion Aaron Pryor with how he throws shots without stopping.
It’s hard to deal with a fighter like Zepeda because he’s got an unbelievable engine, and it’s impossible to keep him off because he’s excellent at cutting off the ring against movers. Once Zepeda is on you, he will start throwing with both hands and won’t stop for anything.
Zepeda recently defeated former 130-lb champion Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz by a twelve round decision last October in a fight in which he threw over 1000 punches. Diaz looked beaten up at the end of the contest, and it’s not surprising because Zepeda hit him a lot.
Zepeda is trying to get a world title shot against one of the champions at lightweight. He could fight for one of the belts if undisputed champion Devin Haney elects to move up to 140.
In a perfect world, Haney will fight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis next, lose that contest, and then Zepeda battles the winner. If Zepeda has to go through Shakur Stevenson, that would be a problem because he’s a bad-style match-up.
Golden Boy Promotions will likely keep Zepeda away from Shakur because the money in that fight isn’t significant enough for them to go in that direction. Where Zepeda can make money by fighting Tank, but that won’t happen until he faces Haney first.
Unbeaten lightweight contender William Zepeda will meet Jaime Arboleda tonight in the main event in a 12 round bout at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas. At 8 pm ET live on DAZN, the action will begin. Zepeda (27-0, 23 KOs) is promoted by Golden Boy and is one of the future stars for the 135-lb division.