Underdog Victor Morales and Undefeated William Zepeda Score Fast KOs in Texas

Always humble William Zepeda blasted out Panama’s Jaime Arboleda and then saluted Victor Ortiz who he replaced in the main event. But the night was stolen by Victor Morales who zapped Diego De La Hoya on Saturday.

An expected technical battle busted out into a war and Victor Morales (18-0-1, 9 KOs) emerged victorious over the favored Diego De La Hoya (24-2, 11 KOs) in a quick but decisive knockout in the second round to win a regional featherweight title at Arlington, Texas.

It was fast and furious.

Morales had asked for the fight with De La Hoya but most expected that the cousin of promoter Oscar De La Hoya would emerge the winner. It seemed that way in the first round with both scoring on exchanges.

“I decided to start faster,” said Morales. “I wanted him to know the power was there.”

The second round saw Morales explode with combinations including a left hook that staggered and dropped De La Hoya. He got up before the count of 10. The fight resumed and both unloaded with blows. Again, Morales connected with a left hook to the chin and down went De La Hoya again. This time he could not get up as the referee counted to 10.

“I thought he was going to get up both times,” said Morales. “He was going for it.”

Morales won by knockout at 1:08 of the second round.

The Vancouver, Washington based fighter had called out De La Hoya because he needed a name opponent to establish himself as a quality fighter. He accomplished that feat emphatically.

“I’m coming for everyone in the division,” Morales said.

Zepeda

William Zepeda proved always ready when he accepted to fill in for the scheduled Vergil Ortiz Jr. who was forced to pull out of the main event because of a re-occurrence of a physical malady.

Zepeda (28-0, 24 KOs) accepted the fight with Panama’s Jaime Arboleda (19-3, 14 KOs) a former super featherweight world title challenger who moved up in weight.

Bad decision.

Zepeda used the first round to establish a rhythm against the taller Arboleda and then used the second round to unload dozens of body shots that sent the lean Panamaian fighter to the floor three times total.

“We noticed he was lowering his hands,” said Zepeda about why so many body blows.

Arboleda was counted out at 2:16 of the second round.

Other Bouts

Ghana’s Frederick Lawson (30-3, 22 KOs) defeated last-minute substitute Estevan Villalobos (16-2-1, 12 KOs) but barely survived the last round to win by unanimous decision. It was close.

Lawson was managing to out-point Villalobos throughout the 10-round fight but toward the last three rounds he seemed to lose steam. The sub from Indio, California had plenty of stamina and firepower and landed a big counter right uppercut in the final round that had Lawson reeling. But he survived and won by decision 96-94 twice and 97-93.

Super middleweight prospect David Stevens (13-0) out-fought Mexico City’s Marco Periban (26-7-1) by unanimous decision after eight rounds. The crucial round proved to be third round when Stevens staggered Periban with a big blow and was looking to end the fight. Instead, the Mexican fighter made a stand and floored the Texas based fighter with a counter shot. But it wasn’t enough to pull out a victory. The judges scored the fight 78-73 twice and 77-74.

Heavyweight Tristan Kalkreuth (10-1) beat Jonathan Lee Rice (2-3) by decision.

Roberto Cruz (9-0) knocked out Tyrone Selders (9-16-2) in the second round of a super welterweight contest.

Caleb Suniga (1-0) knocked out Carlos Arroyo (5-23-1) in the first round of a super featherweight match.

Light heavyweight Darius Fulghum (4-0) knocked out Jay Williams (4-11) in the second round.

Photo credit: Cris Esquesda / Golden Boy

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