Prohibitive may have been too close to describe Zepeda's destructive domination as he backed Gesta up from the opening bell, firing both quantity and quality punches to the head and body with Gesta often trapped along the ropes, reserved to only throw an occasional punch to try to stave off the Zepeda attack.
Those attempts had the success of a fly against a window- it may connect but it's not hurting the window.
And midway through the sixth round, Gesta's corner decided that they had seen enough and gave their man an honorable surrender after five and a half rounds of a brutal mismatch that proved only that Zepeda is ready to face the best of the division to see how he sizes up against those at the top.
The problem for Zepeda is that Golden Boy doesn't have a top-level lightweight to face Zepeda to see how good he is unless Ryan Garcia could be convinced to return to lightweight, which is unlikely due to Garcia's issues making 135 pounds and Zepeda being the definition of high risk, low reward for Garcia, who is coming back from his first loss.
Zepeda is ranked second by the WBA but should Devin Haney give up that tile, Gervonta Davis will likely be promoted from minor champion and defend against the WBA number one contender Isaac Cruz in a rematch of their 2021 fight.
The WBC has Zepeda ranked fifth and he was offered a chance at Shakur Stevenson for the vacant title but he was unavailable as he had the Gesta fight signed that took precedence.
In the IBF rankings, Zepeda is sixth ( the IBF currently lacks a number one) but each of the contenders ahead of him are affiliated elsewhere, George Kambosos and Vasyl Lomachenko (Top Rank) Cruz (PBC), and Maxi Hughes (Matchroom).
The WBO ranks Zepeda seventh behind Lomachenko, Cruz, Stevenson, Denys Baranchyk, Angel Fierro, and Frank Martin.
I don't know if Baranchyk has an American promoter, Martin is with PBC, and Fierro is with Matchroom, so maybe DAZN's involvement with Golden Boy and Matchroom could help make an exciting All-Mexico battle that I would favor Zepeda to win.
Zepeda overwhelmed Gesta with volume and I wonder how effective he would be against the division's best.
Zepeda has been knocked down in the past and while I wouldn't say that his chin is vulnerable, I would say that I wonder how his chin will hold up against better fighters than he has been fighting in his career.
One thing that I will say about William Zepeda is this- whenever he receives the chance against a top opponent, Zepeda is going to leave everything in the ring.
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