Next month’s fight between William Zepeda and Tevin Farmer will have the WBC interim lightweight title at stake for their 10-round clash on Latino Night on November 16th at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Salvador Rodriguez reports that the World Boxing Council has approved the WBC interim 135-lb belt for the Zepeda vs. Farmer fight, which will be shown live on DAZN. Having the WBC interim title at stake for the Zepeda-Farmer fight will make it a little more interesting. Zepeda is rated #1 by all four sanctioning bodies at lightweight and is seen by many as the biggest threat to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ reign.
If Zepeda defeats Farmer and Shakur in 2025, he will be coming for the Baltimore native Tank Davis’ Kingship, looking to knock him off the mountain to take his carefully protected throne.
The former IBF super featherweight champion Farmer (33-6-1, 8 KOs) didn’t want the fight to be a 12-rounder, which is understandable. Farmer is a mover in the Shakur Stevenson mold, and it’ll be easier for him to move for ten rounds.
The 34-year-old Farmer doesn’t possess the power, output, or youth to stand and trade with the high-pressure volume puncher Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs). It will be difficult for Farmer to last even six rounds at the pace Zepeda will set on November 16th.
This fight is a warmup for Zepeda before his title challenge against WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22nd. Farmer wants to derail that fight by defeating Zepeda, but his chances of doing that are slim.
It’ll be interesting to see how long Farmer can last using his foot speed with Shakur’s style of fighting. Giovanni Cabrera and Maxi Hughes attempted to move against Zepeda but were recently trapped and stopped by the Mexican warrior. Those two are younger fighters than Farmer and are fighting on a higher level than him. He will need to rediscover his lost youth so he can have a chance against Zepeda.
Shakur will be scouting out Zepeda’s fight. He knows that this is by far the toughest fight of his career that he’ll be dealing with in February. A knockout loss to Zepeda will permanently ruin Shakur’s dream of fighting Gervonta Davis for mega-millions, and it would be unlikely that promoter Eddie Hearn will attempt to extend his contract with Matchroom after his current two-fight deal expires.
Hearn has visions of Shakur being transformed into a global superstar, but Zepeda could bring him down to earth, shattering that dream. He’s not going to keep the New Jersey native if he’s blown out of the water by Zepeda and is stuck with a fighter who is routinely booed in his fights in the U.S.
It’s safe to say that Hearn will give Shakur the bum’s rush if Zepeda obliterates him because he won’t want to keep him on board and have to pay him big money for lesser fights. He’s not someone Hearn can afford to do an expensive four-fight rebuild job on as he did with Anthony Joshua.
