William Zepeda outworks Lamont Roach Jr. to become WBC lightweight champion

LAS VEGAS — The Virgin Hotel Theater built toward Saturday night the way big fight cards do, one bout at a time, the crowd and the noise growing until the building couldn’t hold still. By the final two fights, Terence Crawford, Shawn Porter and Tim Bradley were seated at the TNT broadcast table, Teofimo Lopez was walking the media section with his family, and Kevin Durant had made his way into the building. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman worked the crowd near the front, shaking hands and posing for photos. This was TNT’s new series, The Fight, and the sport’s biggest names had shown up to watch it live.

Raymond Muratalla and Robson Conceicao opened the final stretch of the night with the co-main event and the IBF World Lightweight title on the line. The building was heavily in Muratalla’s corner from the opening bell, and he built his case round by round. He worked behind calculated boxing early, absorbed Conceicao’s awkward counterpunching style without much trouble, and by the midpoint of the fight had all three judges’ scorecards through open scoring. He kept his foot down through the championship rounds, working the body and boxing smart defense against Conceicao’s late push, and closed it out with a visible mark under his eye but a clear unanimous decision.

Raymond Muratalla catches Robson Conceicao with a clean left hook to the head.

MANDATORY CREDIT: GOLDEN BOY / CRIS ESQUEDA

Raymond Muratalla catches Robson Conceicao with a clean left hook to the head.

Then it was time for the main event, and William Zepeda walked to the ring first, with Lamont Roach Jr. right behind him for a WBC World Lightweight title fight twelve rounds in the making. Roach came out fast, working the body and finding his footing early, but Zepeda answered with volume, backing Roach to the ropes and trading in the pocket to close out a tight opening round. That volume became the story of the fight. Round after round, Zepeda kept his hands busy, walking Roach down, working up and down, and hunting the cleaner shot even when Roach’s counters landed with more force. The crowd felt it too, chanting Zepeda’s name through the middle rounds and erupting into chants of Mexico as the fight wore on.

William Zepeda lands a stiff right jab to the side of the head of Lamont Roach Jr.

MANDATORY CREDIT: GOLDEN BOY / CRIS ESQUEDA

William Zepeda lands a stiff right jab to the side of the head of Lamont Roach Jr.

Roach had his moments. He clipped Zepeda with a wide left hook late in the ninth, found breathing room in the tenth to land some of his cleanest shots of the fight, and never stopped competing through two of the most evenly fought rounds of the night in the sixth and seventh. 

Lamont Roach Jr. counters and clips William Zepeda with a left hook

MANDATORY CREDIT: GOLDEN BOY / CRIS ESQUEDA

Lamont Roach Jr. counters and clips William Zepeda with a left hook

But Zepeda’s activity carried him through the scorecards. All three judges, Tim Cheatham, Eric Cheek and David Sutherland, had it for Zepeda, two of them 117-111 and the third 118-110. William Zepeda left Las Vegas the new WBC lightweight champion, by unanimous decision.

The referee raises William Zepeda’s hand in victory as trainer Jay

MANDATORY CREDIT: GOLDEN BOY / CRIS ESQUEDA

The referee raises William Zepeda’s hand in victory as trainer Jay “Panda” Najar also celebrates with his fighter.

There’s a personal thread running through this one for me. Days before the two ever stepped into the ring, I sat down with Zepeda for an interview about exactly this kind of night. He talked then about the lesson from his only career loss, to Shakur Stevenson, and what he said he’d taken from it: control the pace, don’t get desperate, let the openings come to you instead of forcing them. He also said Roach’s counterpunching style would demand something different from him than his usual approach, smart pressure instead of pressure for its own sake, working the body, combining his punches, never staying in one spot long enough to get hit clean.

Watching him do precisely that on Saturday, round after round of volume and movement, working up top and down to the body, refusing to sit still long enough for Roach to time him, made the result land differently. He said what his plan was. Then he walked out and lived it, all the way to a world title.

William Zepeda poses with his belt as the new WBC Lightweight Champion

MANDATORY CREDIT: GOLDEN BOY / CRIS ESQUEDA

William Zepeda poses with his belt as the new WBC Lightweight Champion