William Zepeda defended his interim WBC lightweight title, but was once again made to work hard by Tevin Farmer in Cancun, coming through their rematch by majority decision over 12 hard rounds on Saturday.
The two met in Riyadh last November, where former IBF super featherweight champion, Farmer wasn’t expected to massively trouble Zepeda, but did the opposite, flooring the Mexican during their meeting, before going down by the narrowest of margins on the scorecards via split decision.
Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) started the sequel at a high intensity, throwing a lot of punches with bad intentions in an attempt to unsettle Farmer (33-8-1, 8 KOs) early on.
The visitor was doing well to negate his rival and disrupt his rhythm, but he tripped over an advertising display in round two and Zepeda pounced, unloading with several shots that troubled the American.
The 34-year-old survived, and signalled to his corner that he had damaged his left hand, but carried on, having successes on the counter.
Zepeda had another pocket of success in round five, troubling Farmer with an array of shots, but again, the challenger used his experience to see out the storm.
Farmer began to hit and move, and that saw him stifle Zepeda’s power as he turned the tide in rounds six, seven and eight, but the home favourite then regained the upper hand, as Farmer’s output decreased.
The bout remained competitive, and the penultimate frame saw Zepeda’s power punching going up against Farmer’s combination work, and Farmer then summoned a superb final round, a big left hand appearing to drop the 28-year-old, but the referee ruled it a slip.
Slip or knockdown?! WHAT A FIGHTTTTT!!!! 🤯#ZepedaFarmer2 | LIVE NOW on DAZN pic.twitter.com/FHPhK8RiV9
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 30, 2025
One judge had the contest a 114-114 draw, but scores of 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda ensured he took the win.
The Mexican will now hope for a shot at the full WBC lightweight title against Shakur Stevenson.
Collazo KO’s Hernandez
Oscar Collazo made a successful fifth defence of his WBO minimumweight title, as he took out home hope Edwin Cano Hernandez in the fifth round of their clash.
A body shot from Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs) had Hernandez (13-3-1, 4 KOs) slumped on the canvas and unable to beat the count.
#ANDSTILL 👑 Oscar Collazo successfully defends his title and improves to 12-0 (9 KO’s) 🔥 #ZepedaFarmer2 | LIVE on DAZN@DAZNboxing @RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/r1xzLgtD58
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) March 30, 2025
Valle overcomes Esparza
Yokasta Valle won the battle of former unified world champions at flyweight, as she took a split decision win over Marlen Esparza (15-3, 1 KO) over 10 competitive rounds.
Two scores of 97-93 won the fight for Valle (33-3, 10 KOs), with a third judge scoring 96-94 in Esparza’s favour.
Remaining Undercard
Swedish cruiserweight prospect, Robin Sirwan Safar (18-0, 13 KOs), who defeated former light heavyweight world champion, Sergey Kovalev in his last bout, claimed a fifth round stoppage win against Roberto Silva (13-4, 7 KOs).
Robin Safar STOPS Roberto Silva 👀👀#ZepedaFarmer2 | LIVE NOW on DAZN pic.twitter.com/eSkNSPZkRq
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 30, 2025
At flyweight, Joselito Velazquez was a dominant points winner against Adolfo Castillo Gonzalez (12-5-2, 7 KOs) over 10 rounds.
Two scores of 100-89, and a third at 97-92 saw Velazquez (21-1-1, 13 KOs) run out a comfortable victor.
