Mexican lightweight contender William Zepeda and British contender Maxi Hughes are within reach of challenging WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis―who only recently became the official WBA world champion―but they will first have to get past each other. Their match―which is set to headline a Golden Boy-promoted card at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 16―has been confirmed to be a WBA lightweight eliminator fight, making the winner become the mandatory challenger to the WBA lightweight title.
William Zepeda (29-0, 25 KO’s) will notably be going into the bout with one of the highest knockout (KO) percentages in the 135 lbs division. With dominant wins over decent competition such as Mercito Gesta (34-4-3, 17 KO’s) and Joseph Diaz (33-4-1, 15 KO’s), Zepeda has established himself as one of the most prevalent fighters in the lightweight division.
Maxi Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KO’s) will be coming off a controvrsial majority decision (MD) loss to Australian former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KO’s) last year in July in a fight that he arguably won, and will therefore come in form against Zepeda given his last performance.
More prominently, Hughes was known as the IBO lightweight champion prior to his loss to Kambosos, and had reigned for approximately two years before his eventual defeat to the Australian. Hughes defended his title twice, and though the IBO is not recognized as a major sanctioning body, the Brit has developed some relative experience at a quasi-world level in lieu of his stint as an IBO champion.
Interestingly, both fighters are known southpaws and will feature in a rare southpaw vs. southpaw bout. On paper, it will be Zepeda who will be considered the favorite due to his undefeated status and high knockout percentage (aprx. 86%), but Hughes has won some attention and notoriety following his match against Kambosos and has at least shown the ability to compete against elite competition.
As the winner will become the WBA mandatory of the 135 lbs division, Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s) will naturally be expected to be the next in line for the winner to face, though the WBA is not necessarily stringent with enforcing mandatories evident by the Lara-Zerafa situation and the Romero-Barroso conundrum which has seen at least two mandatory challengers receive their opportunities to fight the WBA champion arrive late, or not at all.
More matches for the card will be announced in the near future. The Golden Boy-promoted event will further be broadcasted on the global streaming service of DAZN.
