William Zepeda (30-0, 26 KOs) was a pure knockout machine on Saturday, winning a fourth-round TKO against an overmatched Maxi Hughes (26-7-2, 5 KOs) in an IBF/WBA lightweight title eliminator at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Hughes’ corner was forced to pull him out at the end of the fourth round after the 27-year-old unloaded with a storm of shots in the round.
They were poised to stop the fight during the round, as Hughes was getting pummeled by nonstop punches from Zepeda, and unable to keep him off. Surprisingly, Hughes made it out of the round without going down or the referee stopping it, but he was in bad shape.
It would have been insane if Hughes’ corner had allowed him to come out for the fifth round, considering he looked badly beaten, with his face swollen and red, not fight left in him.
Hughes held his own in the first two rounds, standing directly in front of Zepeda and fighting him toe-to-toe. Interestingly, Hughes didn’t use movement to try to stay out of Zepeda’s range, but he might have realized that it wouldn’t have worked.
Zepeda is too good at cutting off the round, and the only fighter that would have a shot at keeping away from him would be a highly mobile guy like Shakur Stevenson. But even Shakur would have a lot of issues trying to keep from getting trapped and worn down by Zepeda.
In the third round, Hughes was machine-gunned by Zepeda for the entire three minutes, particularly the last 30 seconds. He was punished enormously in that round. Huges’ right eye was reddened from the shots he absorbed in the round.
After the fight, Zepeda said he would like to challenge WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson or WBA ‘regular’ champ Gervonta Davis next. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya agreed with him, saying he would like either of those fighters for Zepeda.
In the co-feature bout, #4 WBA lightweight contender Floyd Schofield )17-0, 12 KOs) defeated Esteuri Suero (13-2, 5 KOs) by a fifth-round disqualification. The bout was halted at 2:07 of round five after Suero hit the 21-year-old Schofield with a low blow.
Suergo lost points in rounds two and four for roughhouse tactics. In round two, Schofield suffered a cut over his right eye from a clash of heads.