Zepeda Defeats Roach To Win World Title

On Sat., Aug. 1, William Zepeda (34-1, 27 KOs) overcame his underdog status and defeated former WBA junior lightweight world champion Lamont Roach, Jr. (25-2-3, 10 KOs) in Las Vegas to win the vacant WBC lightweight championship.

Going into the fight many thought that Roach’s boxing skill and the belief that Roach was the all-around better athlete would be enough to overcome his challenger.

Zepeda was represented by Golden Boy Promotions, headed by Oscar De La Hoya, while Roach was represented by PBC, another promotional company. The two outfits were able to work together to give the public this quality fight, which is not always the case with competing boxing promoters.

The blueprint to defeat Zepeda was provided by current WBO Jr welterweight (140 lbs.) champion Shakur Stevenson, who defeated Zepeda over a year ago by decision to hold on to his WBC belt before being stripped of the title. Shakur’s approach to defeat Zepeda was to outbox him. What that means is to use a good jab, combination punches, good defense, and use the entire ring.

After his victory, Zepeda was overwhelmed with joy, saying he had worked for years to realize his dream of finally winning a world title.

Zepeda is a volume puncher, who is very difficult to outwork. Roach clearly did not follow Shakur’s game plan. At the sound of the opening bell, it was Zepeda who was able to implement his game plan against Roach which was to outwork and outscore Roach. With the exception of 3 or 4 rounds given to Roach (on this writer’s unofficial score card), the rest of the 8 or 9 rounds of a scheduled 12 rounds were scored in favor of Zepeda.

Zepeda was the aggressor, stalked Roach, and threw a volume of punches. Roach for his part looked to counter as he usually does but did not throw enough punches to neutralize Zepeda. At the post-fight conference, Roach praised Zepeda’s performance, but it appeared that Roach had underestimated Zepeda, saying that he had thought Cepeda was a “one trick pony”.

After his victory, Zepeda was overwhelmed with joy, saying he had worked for years to realize his dream of finally winning a world title. Zepeda went so far as to say he wanted to unify the title and become undisputed, which if he defeated the three other champions would give him three more belts (WBA, WBO, IBF) along with his newly won WBC title. Whether or not he has that opportunity for becoming undisputed remains to be seen.

WBA champion Floyd Schofield is promoted by Golden Boy, as is Zepeda, so there will be no conflict in signing that unification fight if both fighters agree. However, WBO champion Abdullah Mason and Ray Muratalla are both promoted by Top Rank. While different boxing promoters can work together in the interest of making money, sometimes they can’t because the money to be made is too much, and they don’t want to share it. Hopefully that will not be the case, and Zepeda can attempt to unify the title starting with Floyd Schofield, Jr.

Co Main event

In the co-main event Raymond  Muratalla (25-0, 17 KOs) defended his IBF lightweight (135 lbs.) championship against former WBC junior lightweight champion Robson Conceicao (26-3,1,1 NC, 10 KOs) via 12 round unanimous decision.

It was a very good and spirited fight. Conceicao was determined to be champion by attempting to defeat Muratalla. However, Muratalla was the faster and better boxer, who appeared to have the better game plan for the duration of the 12 rounds. That subsequently won him the fight, and he successfully defended his IBF world title. There is a rumored fight negotiation with WBO Jr. welterweight (130 lbs.) champion Shakur Stevenson for Muratalla.  Muratalla would have to give up his WBC title and move up to the 140lbs division to do that. That would likely be for a “Big Money” fight which he would likely earn, which is a lot more money instead of fighting his fellow champions. A fight with Shakur would be good for boxing. Let’s see what happens.

Regarding Conceicao, even though he lost to Muratalla, he gave a very good accounting of himself. Conceicao is a Brazilian, who won a gold medal in the 2016 Olympics for his country. In 2024, he went on to defeat current WBC lightweight champion O’Shaquie Foster for the title by split decision even though many thought the decision was controversial and should have been awarded to Foster.

Conceicao was totally outclassed in the rematch and lost the title a year later to Foster. However, last Saturday Conceicao showed good skill and determination. Conceicao performed well, and this writer would not be surprised if Conceicao is a world champion again someday.

All in all, both the main event fight and the co-main event did not disappoint boxing fans.

Contact Writer: RL*********@*ol.com