Shakur Stevenson Puts On Masterclass, Beats William Zepeda By UD To Retain WBC Lightweight Title

It was a rare southpaw vs. southpaw matchup, with the story of the fighting being Stevenson's skillset against Zepeda's work rate.

The start of the fight was what people expected, with Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) pressing forward and pushing Stevenson to the ropes. Zepeda was throwing to the body early to try to slow down the world-class movement of Stevenson. The champion surprisingly stayed inside the pocket, managing distance and firing back inside the pocket.

As the fight progressed early on, "Camaron" was having some success, throwing at a high volume and just smothering Stevenson to the point where he couldn't be very active. The challenger even caught Stevenson with a stiff jab, nearly scoring a knockdown.

While the challenger had some success in the beginning, Stevenson proved why he's one of the trickiest puzzles to solve as he adjusted well and started to pull away from the fight.

From the fifth round on, Stevenson began counterpunching beautifully, catching Zepeda at will and even showcasing some different punch angles. The champions was landing the cleaner punches and shockingly, looked like he was throwing the harder shots.

And despite Zepeda still pushing the pace and throwing at a high volume, the activity started to become sloppy and eventually began smothering his own work. Stevenson would take advantage, mixing his footwork with some multi-punch combinations that would stun Zepeda on multiple occasions.

While Zepeda's output was impressive, Stevenson landed more than half his power punches and his display of skills really shined through in the second half of the fight. The mind on him to stay composed in the line of danger early is impressive as he was able to weather a three-round storm to then meticulously implement his game plan.

It was by far Stevenson's most impressive performance since moving to 135 lbs and 2025 has seen a return to form for the WBC champion. And after this win, it wouldn't be surprising if Stevenson was the Ring Magazine's No. 1 ranked lightweight.