William Zepeda forced Maxi Hughes to retire after four brutal rounds at the weekend
Maxi Hughes (26-7-2, 5KO) was pulled out of his contest with William Zepeda (30-0, 26KO) after sustained punishment this past weekend and has now given his view on what would happen should “Camaron” come up against WBC lightweight ruler Shakur Stevenson.
Plucky Brit Hughes was overwhelmed by the unbeaten Zepeda’s pressure at the top of a DAZN card on Saturday night, March 16, from The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
At the end of the first four rounds, he had already taken plenty of heat and his corner decided they had seen enough so pulled him out, causing referee Robert Hoyle to stop the fight and announced Zepeda as the winner.
“Camaron” is now the mandatory contender to two lightweight belts – the WBA held by Gervonta “Tank” Davis and the winner of the May contest between Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos for the IBF and IBO belts.
After the fight, Zepeda’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya also called out Shakur Stevenson and then Hughes was asked to comment on that prospective fight.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV he said he would like to see it, “It would be good to see of Shakur could keep the distance and keep him off him. Zepeda, we’ve studied him a lot, he comes forward relentlessly so it be interested to see him in with Shakur, or Haney or Lomachenko. ”
He was then asked whether Zepeda did anything better than onlookers might think but he said everything that happened was what they predicted.
“We expected that, I just expected to be able to cope with it better on the night. It just didn’t go my way.”