William Zepeda and Maxi Hughes sq. off Saturday night time on DAZN from Las Vegas in a 12-round light-weight most important occasion.
Zepeda (29-0, 25 KO) is a transparent favourite within the battle, however the veteran Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KO) has been on a great run for the final three-plus years, and a few really feel must be coming off of a win over George Kambosos Jr in his most up-to-date outing.
Can Hughes pull one other upset, or does the rail finish at William Zepeda?
Who wins Zepeda vs Hughes?
Scott Christ (6-1)
Zepeda is all flawed for Hughes. I actually don’t assume there’s even an entire lot extra to say, so fortunately there are three different folks to say extra, and I can put on this half-assed succinct effort on this one.
I simply don’t see something Hughes can do with this man if Zepeda’s nearly as good as I believe he’s. However I do assume Hughes has the craft to hold round; my Criswell imaginative and prescient is a stoppage most individuals don’t assume wanted to be one, although he’s miles out of the battle with no path to victory. Zepeda TKO-10
Wil Esco (5-2)
It’s laborious to say something apart from all the chips gave the impression to be stacked towards Hughes’ favor on this matchup towards William Zepeda. Nonetheless you considered Hughes battle with George Kambosos, that battle definitely doesn’t give me any confidence in Hughes’ probabilities to go up towards a youthful, stronger and extra assured Zepeda who’s simply been taking good care of enterprise.
Hughes has been damaged down and stopped earlier than, and I see that as an analogous situation the place he’s out of there by the mid-point within the battle. Zepeda TKO-6
John Hansen (6-1)
Aside from possibly Tank Davis, William Zepeda is absolutely the worst model matchup at 135 kilos for Maxi Hughes. That stated, Hughes is a savvy, skilled professional, and we’ve already seen JoJo Diaz navigate a dialed-in Zepeda right through to a remaining bell. It may be achieved, and the identical issues that make Hughes extremely unlikely to discover a path to victory additionally give him a robust probability to final the space.
Hughes can’t, and gained’t attempt to, grasp in and bang with Zepeda. Which means we gained’t get a vigorous battle like Zepeda vs Alvarado, but it surely additionally means Hughes shouldn’t get completed early like Mercito Gesta and Jaime Arboleda. With respect and apologies to what JoJo Diaz may do in his early days of Nineteen Seventies Elvis cosplay, Hughes is arguably essentially the most tactically full and artful opponent Zepeda has ever confronted. I don’t assume Hughes can cease Zepeda, and even damage him sufficient to sluggish him down. I do assume Hughes can survive him. Zepeda UD-12
Patrick Stumberg (6-1)
Hughes’ is a feel-good story regardless of the way you slice it. Left for useless after a few tough home losses, he simply saved scoring upset after upset after upset to work his manner onto the world stage. Him getting this chance after that screwjob towards Kambosos is a uncommon case of justice and reparation in a sport infamous for leaving its unfortunates within the lurch.
It’s simply not going to go properly for him.
The factor with Kambosos is that he’s actually not that good on the lead. His greatest ability, the one which meshed so fantastically with Teofimo Lopez’s worst habits, is his skill to punish overextension with flurries. Hughes’ footwork and timing had been an ideal counter, however giving Zepeda that sort of slack is simply asking for bother. “El Camaron” isn’t a uncooked slugger like Jovanni Straffon; he’s obtained the abilities to hunt Hughes down and do severe harm.
This screams “snowball,” with Hughes outmaneuvering Zepeda within the early going earlier than Zepeda’s quantity and physique assault sluggish his toes and pressure him to climate more and more brutal combos within the pocket. Zepeda’s round-by-round output hits the triple digits across the halfway level and finally secures the end close to the top. Zepeda TKO-10
