Tag: Joseph Diaz

Fight Week: Punching machine William Zepeda set to face Maxi Hughes

Fight Week: Punching machine William Zepeda is set to face Maxi Hughes in a 135-pound title eliminator Saturday in Las Vegas.

FIGHT WEEK

Top 135-pound contender William Zepeda is scheduled to face slick Maxi Hughes in a title eliminator Saturday in Las Vegas.

WILLIAM ZEPEDA (29-0, 25 KOs)
VS. MAXI HUGHES (26-6-2, 5 KOs)

  • Date: Saturday, March 16
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Lightweight (135 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Odds: Zepeda 6-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
  • Significance (up to five stars): ***
  • Also on the card: Floyd Schofield vs. Esteuri Suero, lightweights; Marlen Esparza vs. Gabriela Alaniz, flyweights (for Esparza’s WBA, WBC and WBO titles); Victor Morales vs. Luis Reynado Nunez, featherweights
  • Background: Zepeda is hot on the heels of the top 135-pounders after a series of impressive performances. The volume-punching, powerful 27-year-old southpaw from Mexico is coming off his biggest victory, a brutal sixth-round knockout of former top contender Mercito Gesta in September. That followed a near-shutout victory over former 130-pound champ Joseph Diaz in October 2022 and a second-round stoppage over Jaime Arboleda last April. Zepeda threw a division-record 1,536 punches in the Diaz fight, according to CompuBox. He’s ranked in the Top 5 of all major sanctioning bodies, No. 1 by both the WBA and WBC. His fight with Hughes is being billed as a title eliminator for the IBF and WBA. Hughes, a 33-year-old southpaw from the U.K., is a good boxer with limited power. He gave a strong performance against former 135-pound titleholder George Kambosos Jr. in his most recent fight last July, losing a disputed majority decision. That effort evidently earned him a shot at Zepeda. He had won his previous seven fights, including a majority decision over capable Kid Galahad in September 2022.

 

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

WEDNESDAY

  • Radivoje Kalajdzic vs. Sullivan Barrera, light heavyweights, Plant City, Florida (ProBox TV)
  • Sam Goodman vs. Mark Schleibs, junior featherweights, Wollongong, Australia (no TV in U.S.)

FRIDAY

  • Callum Walsh vs. Dauren Yeleussinov, junior middleweights, New York (UFC Fight Pass)

SATURDAY

  • Nathan Heaney vs. Brad Pauls, middleweights, Birmingham, England (ESPN+)

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Fight Week: Punching machine William Zepeda set to face Maxi Hughes

Fight Week: Punching machine William Zepeda is set to face Maxi Hughes in a 135-pound title eliminator Saturday in Las Vegas.

FIGHT WEEK

Top 135-pound contender William Zepeda is scheduled to face slick Maxi Hughes in a title eliminator Saturday in Las Vegas.

WILLIAM ZEPEDA (29-0, 25 KOs)
VS. MAXI HUGHES (26-6-2, 5 KOs)

  • Date: Saturday, March 16
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Lightweight (135 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Odds: Zepeda 6-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
  • Significance (up to five stars): ***
  • Also on the card: Floyd Schofield vs. Esteuri Suero, lightweights; Marlen Esparza vs. Gabriela Alaniz, flyweights (for Esparza’s WBA, WBC and WBO titles); Victor Morales vs. Luis Reynado Nunez, featherweights
  • Background: Zepeda is hot on the heels of the top 135-pounders after a series of impressive performances. The volume-punching, powerful 27-year-old southpaw from Mexico is coming off his biggest victory, a brutal sixth-round knockout of former top contender Mercito Gesta in September. That followed a near-shutout victory over former 130-pound champ Joseph Diaz in October 2022 and a second-round stoppage over Jaime Arboleda last April. Zepeda threw a division-record 1,536 punches in the Diaz fight, according to CompuBox. He’s ranked in the Top 5 of all major sanctioning bodies, No. 1 by both the WBA and WBC. His fight with Hughes is being billed as a title eliminator for the IBF and WBA. Hughes, a 33-year-old southpaw from the U.K., is a good boxer with limited power. He gave a strong performance against former 135-pound titleholder George Kambosos Jr. in his most recent fight last July, losing a disputed majority decision. That effort evidently earned him a shot at Zepeda. He had won his previous seven fights, including a majority decision over capable Kid Galahad in September 2022.

 

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

WEDNESDAY

  • Radivoje Kalajdzic vs. Sullivan Barrera, light heavyweights, Plant City, Florida (ProBox TV)
  • Sam Goodman vs. Mark Schleibs, junior featherweights, Wollongong, Australia (no TV in U.S.)

FRIDAY

  • Callum Walsh vs. Dauren Yeleussinov, junior middleweights, New York (UFC Fight Pass)

SATURDAY

  • Nathan Heaney vs. Brad Pauls, middleweights, Birmingham, England (ESPN+)

[lawrence-related id=38937,38931,37098,33752,38164]

Joseph Diaz Jr. ‘not too happy’ about his promoter, Golden Boy

Canelo Alvarez isn’t the only presumably unhappy Golden Boy fighter. Joseph Diaz Jr. had some harsh words for the promoter in an interview.

You can add Joseph Diaz Jr. to the shortlist of disgruntled Golden Boy Promotions fighters.

The junior lightweight contender recently went on Sirius XM’s Fight Nation radio show to discuss his title fight against Tevin Farmer on the Demetrius Andrade-Luke Keeler card Jan. 30 in Miami. When asked about his thoughts on his promoter, Diaz expressed dissatisfaction. 

“I would say not too happy, not too happy, man,” Diaz (31-1-0, 15 knockouts) said. “I would say after the Gary Russell (featherweight title) fight (in 2018) they (Golden Boy) didn’t really promote me or do anything as much as they should.

“They gave me a another world title fight against Jesus Rojas, but I just felt that they started to treat me like an opponent, started to treat me like I’m not the fighter that [has] the talent like I do.”

It’s the latest sign of discontent from within Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional stable. Things became icy between cash cow Canelo Alvarez and De La Hoya, as they barely acknowledged one another in the lead-up to Alvarez’s bout against Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 2. Around the same time, Ryan Garcia engaged in a war of words with his promoters before cooler heads prevailed and Garcia was pacified with a lucrative new contract.

Most recently, former junior lightweight titleholder Andrew Cancio spoke out against Golden Boy ahead of his title-losing bout against Rene Alvarado. Afterward, Golden Boy cut Cancio from its roster. 

Diaz didn’t mince his own words. The former Olympian truly believes he has been neglected after coming up short against Russell. 

“With Jesus Rojas, they had me fighting on Facebook Watch, a brand new network where hardly anybody is going to be watching that,” Diaz said. “I had a good purse with Gary Russell Jr. and with Jesus Rojas I had a really sh– purse, and I accepted it because I knew that I had lost and that I had to work my way up.”