William Zepeda vs Jaime Arboleda Fight Results: Zepeda Scores TKO2 Win

William Zepeda, the power hitting 26 year old lefty from Mexico, took on and took out Panama’s Jaime Arboleda, in College Park, Texas on Saturday, April 29.

In round two, Zepeda went hard at Arboleda, dropping him three times, the last time for good.

In the first round, Arboleda impressed fans with solid ring generalship early, while Zepeda pressed from the get go. He likes to get real close, and let rip.

In the second round, the lefts were landing, down  went Arboleda off a body blow. With 1:38 left, Arboleda tried to survive. At 1:15, another body shot dropped the loser. For the third time, he hit the deck. Zepeda had viciously whacked his body, and he was finished. 

TheWBA Continental Americas lightweight title was up for grabs.

Zepeda came in with a 27-0 (23 KOs) mark. He beat Jo Jo Diaz in his last outing, Oct. 29, 2022. Yes, he knew that Arboleda got stopped by Ricky Dulay (in 2017) and Chris Colbert (in Oct 2020).

Select Golden Boy Promotions bouts ran on DAZN.

William Zepeda is one of the top volume punchers in the game

The Undercard Action Before the William Zepeda vs Jaime Arboleda Fight

Diego De La Hoya (24-1, 11 KOs entering), cousin of Oscar De La Hoya, faced Victor Morales (17-0-1 entering; living in Vancouver, Washington) in a 10 rounds or fewer featherweight clash. Morales stopped Diego in round two, putting him down twice. And people will wonder if Diego will fight on.

The 25 year old Morales announced impressively, and harshly, that he is a player at 126.

Diego is 28. He’s been up and down as a pro. He’s had weight issues, some personal issues, and he wasn’t sure he liked boxing enough to continue. He didn’t fight in 2021, or 2021. Getting stopped by Ronny Rios in 2019 threw him for a loop.

Diego looked sharp early. Morales showed a quick jab, and they looked comparable in round one. Not so in round two, prior to the William Zepeda win.

A left hook hurt Diego, and he started bleeding from his nose.  A lead left hookercut put Diego down, to one knee. He beat the count barely. Morales went back at him. Clubbing rights and a short left hook put Diego back on the floor. He went to both knees, trying to rein in his spastic legs. Diego started to get up at 9 1/2, and the ref waved his hands. The time of the KO finish: 1:08. 

The winner (below, in Golden Boy / Cris Esquesda photo) gets the WBA interim featherweight strap.

This guy is now on my watch list

Post-win, Morales, who has Mexican roots, told interviewer Beto Duran that he knew Diego felt his power in round one. “I wanted him to know the power was there,” so he pressed harder in the second.  He came in knowing he is the better fighter, he told Beto. Diego had busted on him, saying he wasn’t in his league. Oh, no, he is, and then some.

Ghana Boxer Stays Strong In Face of Furious Late Flurry

Frederick Lawson, now 30-3-1, beat Estevan Villalobos of Washington state, in a 10 round welterweight-plus contest.

The scores from the judges: 96-96, 96-94, 97-93.

The crowd didn’t adore the score, the fighting spirit of Villalobos impressed them before they watched the William ZEPEDA win.

The 33 year old Lawson, from Ghana, now lives in Massachusetts. His nickname is “General Okunka.”

The loser looked confident early. He’d been stopped by Blair Cobbs in his lone loss. Villalobos knew Lawson has been stopped three times, by Kevin Bizier (2015; click here to watch it), Juan Ruiz (2019) and Charles Hatley (2021) . The winner moved smartly, his jab being his favorite shot, early on.

The 31 year old Villalobos, now 16-2-1, took the fight on two days notice, despite that, his energy level looked pretty solid.

Indeed, he buzzed Lawson in round 7. Analyst Sergio Mora noticed that Lawson’s legs looked heavy. Villalobos stalked even harder in the eighth. He’d shift to lefty some. But him as a righty, using a sharp right, mostly overhand, worked for him.

Villalobos showed a cut under his left eye, and his team worked on the slice after the eighth. In round nine, he connected on a sharp right. Lawson’s chin held up. Mora noted from the start that Lawson can get into a negative rhythm, just jab and not do much else. He did some of that, but usually mixed in his right, and his output volume decent.

Lawson’s chin held up! (Photo by Golden Boy / Cris Esquesda)

In the tenth, Lawson took shots to the chin. Villalobos flurries like an absolute maniac. Lawson did very well to survive the round, the last portion of it was harrowing.

David Stevens beat vet Marco Periban in a light heavyweight battle, the fight on the William ZEPEDA card.

A cuffing blow sent Stevens to the mat in round three. It wasn’t a thrilling performance. It felt like maybe Stevens assumed Periban’s chin would crumble quickly. In his last fight, Periban got stopped by Irishman Padraig McCrory (no 16-0).

Stevens went 177-411 to 110-495 from Periban.

Here are details on the deeper undercard, from Golden Boy:

Kalkreuth and Rice, slugging it out in Texas. (Photo by Golden Boy / Cris Esquesda)

On the preliminary card, Tristan “Sweet T” Kalkreuth (10-1, 7 KOs) of Duncanville, Texas went the distance against Jonathon “The Reaper” Rice (2-3, 2 KOs) of Cleburne, Texas in a six-round heavyweight fight. The fans in the arena could hear the thundering blows being thrown by “Sweet T” in the tight match up. All three judges scored the bout 59-55, awarding Kalkreuth the unanimous decision win.

Also a part of the preliminary fights, another dazzling young prospect Caleb Suniga (2-0, 1 KO) of Austin, Texas knocked out his opponent, Chichigalpa, Nicaragua’s Carlos Arroyo (5-23-1, 4 KOs), with a left uppercut at 0:41 in the first round in a scheduled four-round super featherweight fight.

Darius “DFG” Fulghum (4-0, 4 KOs) of Houston defeated Jay Williams (4-11, 3 KOs) of West Monroe, Louisiana in a scheduled six-round light heavyweight bout. Bendana tasted the canvas several times throughout the fight due to losing his balance from the power behind Fulghum’s punches. The referee waved the fight off at 0:58 in the second round, awarding Fulghum the TKO.

Opening the Zepeda vs. Arboleda fight night with fireworks, Robert “El Terror de Cayey” Cruz (9-0, 5 KOs) of Killeen, Texas defeated Houston’s Tyrone “Solja Black” Selders (9-16-2, 6 KOs) via second round TKO at 1:48 in the scheduled six-round middleweight bout. The referee stopped the fight when Selders was overwhelmed by the flurry of punches thrown by Cruz.