By Ian S Palmer
Jose Zepeda of Long Beach, California will be taking on former world champion Jose Pedraza of Puerto Rico in a 10-round junior welterweight bout this Saturday, Sept. 14th. The fight is on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs Otto Wallin tilt in Las Vegas and can be seen live in America on ESPN+ while British fans can catch it on BT Sport 1. Zepeda last fought in May in a three-round no-contest with Eleazar Valenzuela. Pedraza’s last bout was a ninth-round TKO over Ines Antonio Lozada Torres in May for the vacant WBO Latino Lightweight Title.
Zepeda is a 30-year-old veteran southpaw with a fine mark of 30-2 along with 25 Kos. His first loss came to Terry Flanagan when he was stopped in the second round in a shot at the WBO Lightweight Title in July of 2015. Zepeda suffered a dislocated left shoulder and remained on his stool when the bell rang to start the third round. He then dropped a majority decision to WBC Super Lightweight Champion Jose Ramirez in February in another world title opportunity.
Zepeda’s 5-feet-8-inches tall with a reach of 70.5 inches and has boxed 121 rounds since turning pro on Christmas Day of 2009. Zepeda’s got some power in his with a current knockout ratio of 74 percent. He’s been on the deck before, but still owns a pretty solid chin. He won the vacant WBO International Super Lightweight Crown in June of 2017 when he stopped Miguel Zamudio in the sixth round.
He then won the vacant WBA Inter-Continental Lightweight Championship by stopping Carlos Diaz Ramirez in the fifth round a year later. Zepeda has also beaten the likes of Luis Arceo, Emanuel Lopez, Robert Frankel, Victor Manuel Cayo, Armando Robles and Abner Lopez. He’s got plenty of experience and power and was Ramirez’s stiffest pro test up to now.
The 30-year-old Pedraza is a former IBF Super Featherweight Champion. He won the vacant belt in June of 2015 when he beat Andrey Klimov by unanimous decision. He defended the crown twice by beating Edner Cherry and Stephen Smith by split and unanimous decisions respectively then lost his crown in his third defence when Gervonta Davis stopped him in the seventh round in January of 2017.
Since then he’s beaten Jose Luis Rodriguez, Antonio Moran and Raymundo Beltran by unanimous decisions.
He then ran into Vasyl Lomachenko last December, was dropped twice in the 11th round and lost a unanimous decision in a shot at the WBO and WBA World Lightweight Belts. Pedraza climbs through the ropes with an impressive mark of 26-1 with 13 Kos. He’s just over 5-feet-8-inches tall with a reach of 70.5 inches which is identical to Zepeda. Pedraza prefers to fight from the outside, but that’s going to be tough against Zepeda though.
Pedraza turned pro in 2011 and isn’t much of a banger as his knockout ratio is 46 per cent, but his power shouldn’t be underestimated. He’s boxed 200 rounds and also owns a unanimous decision over Alberto Garza in 2014 and a seventh-round TKO over Sergio Reyes a year earlier. Pedraza had a fine, extensive amateur career and represented Puerto Rico at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where he lost in the second round. Since turning pro he’s also won the WBC Youth World, USBA, and IBO World Super Featherweight Titles to go along with his WBO Latino Lightweight Crown.
Prediction…
This is a tough call as both bring a lot to the ring. Zepeda has more power but Pedraza has the better boxing skills and owns a pretty solid chin. They each have plenty of experience but it’ll be interesting to see how Pedraza handles the weight in the 140 lb division since he’s fought mainly as a lightweight. I can see this fight going either way, but since Pedraza went 12 rounds against Lomachenko and is a former world champ I’ll give him a slight edge.
