Unbeaten lightweight contender William Zepeda (30-0, 26 KOs) was a human buzzsaw, scoring a fourth-round TKO victory over Maxi Hughes (26-7-2, 5 KOs) on Saturday night in the main event at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hughes’ corner let the referee know at the end of the fourth round that they wanted the fight halted due to the accumulation of shots their fighter had sustained in that round. The 34-year-old Hughes was totally outgunned by Zepeda, who had averaged over 100 punches per round.
In a foul-plagued contest, the lighting-fast lightweight contender Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) defeated Eteuri Suero (13-2, 10 KOs) by a fifth-round disqualification. The referee halted the fight after Suero nailed ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield with a low blow in the fifth round. The time of the stoppage was at 2:07 of round five.
Suero had previously been docked a point in rounds two and four for picking Schofield up. In the fourth, Suro picked Schofield up and body-slammed him. The 21-year-old Schofield suffered a deep cut over his right eye from a clash of heads in the second round.
Schofield hurt the 30-year-old Suero with left hooks to the head in rounds one, two, and four. “He shouldn’t resort to those tactics, but boxers have to do what they do to survive,” said Schofield. “I got this cut and I kept going. I can get a million more cuts, but I’m going to give the fans a good show.
“My dad wants me to be more patient. If it takes for me to lunge in to give the fans the fight they want to see, I’m going to do it. I’m looking for all the big fights. I believe the top guy isn’t going to be as dirty,” said Schofield.
Middleweight Eric Priest (13-0, 8 KOs) won a tougher than expected ten-round unanimous decision over the tough Jose Sanchez (21-5-1, 12 KOs). The scores were 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91.
The 25-year-old Priest dominated the first half of the contest, but he started taking a lot of heavy shots from the 30-year-old Sanchez in the seventh round. From that point, it was a grueling affair, with Priest landing the more numerous shots but getting hit hard by Sanchez.
The fight showed the flaws that Priest has in terms of lack of power, and defense. He’s going to have to make a lot of improvements for him to have a chance of competing against the top guys in the division.