Notebook: Zepeda, Hughes ready to throw down for title shot
Canelo, Munguia speak on fight; Matias defense details; Jose Ramirez foe for card he'll share with Vergil Ortiz; Cuadras-Moloney set; Baumgardner-Persoon purse bid results; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Lightweight knockout artist William Zepeda’s ultimate boxing goal is to win a world title but he will achieve another of his dreams when he squares off with Maxi Hughes in an IBF/WBA lightweight title eliminator that headlines a Golden Boy card on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Zepeda will be fighting in Las Vegas for the first time, something he has wanted since he was a child.
“When I was younger, kids around me would ask, ‘when will you fight in Vegas’ to make fun of me,” Zepeda said through an interpreter at this week’s news conference. “Well, now I can answer them. I’m fighting in Vegas this Saturday.
“I know Maxi Hughes is a great opponent, and that's why we’re fighting him. I am ready for everyone in the lightweight division.”
The winner will be in position to challenge the winner of the May 11 vacant IBF title bout between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr. or as the mandatory challenger for WBA titlist Gervonta Davis. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya, Zepeda’s promoter, has also called for WBC titlist Shakur Stevenson to fight Zepeda on July 6, when he is slated to make his first defense.
Zepeda (29-0, 25 KOs), 27, a Mexican southpaw, is coming off a one-sided sixth-round destruction of Mercito Gesta in September and is the heavy favorite, but England’s Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs), 34, harbors his own world title dreams.
“So very happy to be here. I’m here because of merit,” said Hughes, whose plan to arrive in Las Vegas two weeks before the fight was slashed to one because of last-minute visa issues that saw him land there and be immediately sent back to England because of improper paperwork that took about a week to get ironed out before he was able to fly back. “The IBF ordered me and William to fight, so both of us are here on merit, because we are the best next people in mind going forward.
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