Tim Bradley was disappointed in what he witnessed from William Zepeda, with him getting dropped and struggling to defeat Tevin Farmer last Saturday night in Riyadh.
(Credit: Golden Boy/Cris Esqueda)
Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) won the fight by a 10-round split decision but was dropped in the fourth by a clean left hand that the counter-puncher Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) hit him with. There was no question that Zepeda deserved the win because he had landed many more punches and worn Farmer down with body shots.
The judges didn’t give Zepeda credit for the body shots, so the scores were closer than they should have been. Farmer was badly outworked and overwhelmed by the body punching from Zepeda. Bradley says Zepeda must change his fighting style to become more defensive-minded and a world champion.
Zepeda is 28 years old and has been fighting the same way his entire professional career. He’s known for averaging over 100 punches thrown per round, and that style has made him popular.
“If your defense is trash, you’re not going to last long in the business, and you’re not going to be that champion that you want to be,” said Tim Bradley on his Internet forum, reacting to William Zepeda’s win over Tevin Farmer.
“Zepeda, come on. I understand your offense is your defense, but you’re getting knocked down by Farmer, who’s not really a puncher? That says a lot about your future because they have guys that thump at 135 lbs. Muratalla, come on. He thumps. Keyshawn Davis, he can punch. Gervonta Davis, he’d have put you in a body bag.
“De La Hoya, you’ve got your hands full. You’re going to have to manage this man the right way because if he can’t outwork his opposition, I’m damn sure he can’t outskill him. All the other guys I just mentioned have more skills.”
If Zepeda changes his style to be more of a boxer, is career will go down the drain. He and his trainers obviously know that which is why he fights the way he does. It’s the only style that can work for him, but it’s quite effective, and he may be a good enough one for him to beat Shakur Stevenson.
“He’s going to struggle, I promise you. I’ve been saying this about his defense,” said Bradley.
If Zepeda changes his fighting style to be more defensive-minded, he won’t win fights because he’s not a huge puncher. As we saw last Saturday night, Farmer had more power than Zepeda, and he’s not a puncher.
The only way Zepeda gets knockouts and becomes popular is through his volume punching. If you take that away, he’s not going to go anywhere in the sport and will lose against the better-skilled fighters and the ones with superior power.
Bradley wants Zepeda to transform himself into a defensive wizard, which is impossible for him to do. Even if he could, it would make the Mexican fighter commonplace and hurt his popularity.
What Bradley fails to note is the sport has changed in the last seven years, veering away from the boring defensive Mayweather types to the more entertaining brawling fighters. What fans want to see now are fighters like Zepeda, not ones like Shakur Stevenson or his clone, Tevin Farmer.
Interestingly, Bradley compares himself to Zepeda, saying his defense was better during his career than his, and uses his fight with boxing great Juan Manuel Marquez as an example. Bradley states that he outboxed Marquez to beat him by a 12-round split decision on October 12, 2013. What Bradley fails to mention is that Marquez was 40 and he was 30.
The reality is, Bradley’s defense was never better than Zepeda’s. He took a lot of punishment during his career, losing to Manny Pacquiao twice, and getting lucky with a gift decision against him and Ruslan Provodnikov.