By 
Las Vegas, Nevada
By Ron Harris – Lamont Roach, Jr gave it his all but lost a lop-sided unanimous decision to William Zepeda. The judges scored the fight 117-111 twice and 118-110, that is 10 rounds to 2 and 9 rounds to 3. Roach landed some hard shots, mostly with the right hand, but Zepeda never flinched.
Roach, known as “The Reaper”, was coming off 2 draws, both of which he got some poor refereeing and some questionable judges scoring. This fight, there was no question with the scoring or the refereeing. One of the best referees, Harvey Dock, had an easy night with this fight. In this fight, the best man won. Sometimes you tip your cap to the other man.
Roach, Jr 25-2-3 gave no excuses. “Zepeda and his team had a tremendous game plan tonight that he put into play. I take my hat off to his team. He was just one step ahead of me. Coming into the fight, we thought he was a one trick pony. As you can see, he stepped back and countered, and he didn’t let me get off my counters. He did that the whole fight. I had to switch a couple of things up,” Asked was he surprised that Zepeda 34-1 was able to take the hard shots, “No, he is tough. He has only one loss and never been stopped”
Zepeda’s only loss was to Shukur Stephenson. “He was an exam I could not pass. I went home and worked on my weaknesses and now we are champions,” says Zepeda, through an interpreter. Zepeda had fought 3 hard fights in 9 months. So, he decided to take a year off. “The body breaks down. You may think I am a machine. But the body breaks down. I needed that break.” As for Roach’s counter right hands, “We knew he had a hard right hand. But we respected all his punches. I want to become undisputed, so I don’t care who it is among the 3 other champions.”
Roach, Jr is not discouraged. “He was a better man tonight. I make no excuses. I will be back better than ever. The sky is the limit.” Roach thanked the many fans from his hometown of Washington, DC for showing up. “I want to thank everyone that came to support me. I heard all of you.”
Roach could not bring the belt back to the DMV. That means the DC area has only one world champion and that is Antuanne Russell in the 140-pound division.
Photo credit: Juan Marshall
About Ron Harris
Ron Harris, retired college administrator, coach, broadcaster, Internet and TV sports producer and host. Former radio host of a live call-in show. Extremely close to the sports landscape in the Washington, DC metro area. Former radio sports reporter, covering MLB, college sports, major boxing events and much more.
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