Clash Of Styles At 135 As Zepeda Rematches Farmer Will Zepeda Shine In Cancun?

By Joe Hicketts: William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) faces Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) in Cancun this Saturday, March 29th, in a rematch of their November 2024 fight, which Zepeda won by unanimous decision. The fight will be for Zepeda’s WBC Interim World Lightweight title and will be broadcast live on DAZN.

The best stories in sports often involve clashing styles. I’m thinking of people like Federer Nadal, Senna Prost, and, of course, Ali Frazier. I guess I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for two people who approach the same problem in entirely different ways and the culture clash that that can bring.

That is why this weekend, even though, in truth, this is a fairly run-of-the-mill world-level fight, it somewhat captures my imagination in a way that two more similar-style fighters may not.

William Zepeda will rematch Tevin farmer this Saturday in a rematch of their first fight back in November and it can be considered a bit of a last chance saloon fight for Farmer who while somewhat unlucky in his career to not get the big fights amongst guys like Tank Davis is on the back of two back to back losses and is in that camp of fighters of “why would you want to face this tricky southpaw that is just going to make you look bad.”

Farmer in the earlier part of his career really looked in the mould of a Pernell Whitaker, slick backfoot southpaw boxing, lots of head movement with the occasional flashy single, the biggest difference however between the two would be punch power which Farmer unfortunately lacks a bit and that is where his opponent William Zepeda capitalised in their fight last year.

If Farmer is your typical American-style flashy southpaw, then Zepeda is your typical Mexican-style fighter who also just happens to be a southpaw. Nothing really sticks out to you on a watch of Zepeda apart from his output. He’s much more upright and textbook in his style than Farmer, and he fights with that typical solid Mexican look of jab jab, get inside, then three punches to the body and finish up top.

None of it is particularly spectacular but the thing that makes Zepeda special is that the output is pretty ridiculous. I’m not really one for punch stats but in the previous Farmer fight, Zepeda threw 131 punches in round 9 alone, and while none of the punches have real concussive power its the volume that eventually drowns the opponent.

The best comparison would be weirdly someone like Oleksandr Usyk, while they both have completely different styles both rely on a consistent stream of solid punches rather than a Wilder style haymaker to do the damage, Zepeda is not a one punch knockout merchant despite what his KO ratio says, however he does have very solid variety to his punches up and down which means that the volume never really becomes predictable.

I would say that although Zepeda is one of those guys that only really knows how to fight one way, like Oleksandr Usyk, again, it’s one thing knowing what someone is going to do; it’s another thing to actually go out and stop it. Zepeda will come out like a train and get right in your face throwing hard shots up and drown and effectively try to drown you with activity, as I’ve said I don’t think anything that he does is really that special but you do need to slow him down in some form either by holding or ideally via a bit of power in your own shots.

Do you see where I’m going here?

In the previous fight, Farmer on my card lost the first three rounds, not because he wasn’t having success but because his ones and twos weren’t enough to drown out the five and six-punch combinations that Zepeda was throwing. In short, Farmer couldn’t make it his sort of slower-paced fight. Farmer ended up dropping Zepeda with a textbook slip and left counter in the fourth, but in truth, Zepeda pretty comfortably won the fight, coming forward, overwhelming the older American, and picking up the rounds on activity.

I don’t think Zepeda is the world beater that Golden Boy thinks he his, I haven’t seen much variety in how he can fight, I don’t think he employs much in the way of head movement and if backed up I don’t think he’d be nearly as effective. The question is however is Farmer the guy to do it?

If I was Farmer I’d be looking at a lot of Bernard Hopkins fights for inspiration, he needs to slow Zepeda down somehow, make it ugly and then try and push Zepeda back in the second half of the fight which he did manage to do in spots in the first, the slower the pace the better for Farmer. The difficulty is, though, that I don’t think Farmer really has the gas tank and the punching power to get Zepeda’s respect, and at 34, will he really be any better than he was in their previous fight?

I really like Farmer as a fighter, I think he’s much more exciting than a lot of casuals do and despite having a reputation as a slick boxer the guy can hold his feet and trade on the inside, the issue is is that has this opportunity may have come 5 years too late.

A younger farmer could have given Zepeda fits, I just have the feeling that if it was Farmer’s time again it would have been in the first fight.

I see the fight as effectively a repeat of the first with Farmer getting somewhat overwhelmed from the opening bell. You may see Farmer looking to hold his feet a bit more and try and get the respect of the Mexican and if that happens it may be a bit more of an exciting fight, I just see the more likely scenario as Zepeda shipping a bit of punishment as Farmer lands but Farmer not quite having the killer instinct to turn the screw, Zepeda then getting back into it and picking up the rounds on activity like he did in the first. Farmer will have his moments, but like in the first, I don’t see one hard left hand being enough against four mauling punches on the inside. I think Zepeda’s unanimous decision is a pretty safe bet, but I would love to be proved wrong.

On the undercard, Oscar Collazo (11-0, 8 KOs) defends his WBO Strawweight title against Edwin Cano Hernandez (13-2-1, 4 KOs).