William Zepeda vs. Tevin Farmer II | DAZN - March 29, 2025
Posted: 13 Feb 2025, 16:10
WILLIAM ZEPEDA-TEVIN FARMER REMATCH, OSCAR COLLAZO RING CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSE SET FOR MARCH 29 IN CANCUN
William Zepeda and Tevin Farmer are set to run it back, while Oscar Collazo is set for his first defense of The Ring strawweight championship.
Golden Boy Promotions confirmed that a deal was reached for the Zepeda-Farmer rematch to headline a March 29 DAZN show from an unspecified venue in Cancun, Mexico. The sequel will come barely four months after their Nov. 16 meeting, won by Zepeda via split decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Back for more,” Golden Boy stated through its social media channels. “William Zepeda and Tevin Farmer ready to go toe-to-toe AGAIN on March 29 in Cancun, MX for the REMATCH and the WBC interim lightweight world championship.”
While not yet announced, The Ring has learned that Puerto Rico’s Collazo (11-0, 8 KOs) will defend his RING and unified WBA/WBO strawweight championship against Mexico’s Edward Cano Hernandez (13-2-1, 4 KOs).
Mexico’s Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs), The Ring’s No. 4 lightweight, entered talks for a rematch against Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) once he was unable to proceed with previous plans. The unbeaten southpaw was in line to next challenge WBC 135-pound titlist Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs), but an injury forced him out of their targeted Feb. 22 date in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Stevenson, The Ring’s No. 3-rated lightweight, will instead defend his belt against Floyd Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs).
Zepeda, now fully healed, will return one month later. Given his run as one of the sport’s more active top-rated fighters, it is reasonable to believe that Zepeda—with a win—would be in line to next challenge the Stevenson-Schofield winner without interruption.
“We are fully committed to position William Zepeda to become world champion in 2025,” Jaime Picos, Zepeda’s manager, previously told The Ring. “It hurt to not be able to fight Shakur Stevenson on the big Riyadh Season show, because he has remained our focus.
“So now, we make the moves to ensure that opportunity is still in place after their next fights.”
Nothing is a given, however, especially considering their first fight.
Zepeda survived a knockdown to prevail via ten-round, split decision and claim the interim WBC lightweight title in their Nov. 16 clash in Riyadh. It came at a cost, however. In addition to the knockdown, Zepeda injured his left hand which left him in a sling and sidelined for the remainder of 2024.
Philadelphia’s Farmer suffered his second straight defeat on the night, though his stock soared in the aftermath. As much was the case in a hard-fought, unanimous decision defeat to Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) last July 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Both setbacks saw the former IBF 130-pound titlist far exceed expectations and where an argument was made that he deserved fairer treatment on the scorecards.
Zepeda and Farmer are once again joined by Collazo, who made history on the Nov. 16 undercard. He became the first-ever Ring champion at strawweight in a seventh-round knockout of Thammanoon Niyomtrong (better known as Knockout CP Freshmart to the cool kids).
Collazo, a 28-year-old southpaw from Villalba, Puerto Rico, floored Niyomtrong (25-0 at the time) three times to force the stoppage. The feat ended Niyomtrong’s eight-plus year stay as a WBA strawweight titlist, the longest active reign at the time of their fight.
A concession for allowing the unification bout was that Collazo had to revisit his already agreed-upon fight with Cano. That promise was honored, as the 27-year-old Mexican contender will enter his first major title fight.
Cano is unbeaten in his last four starts, but remains best known for his June 2021 knockout loss to then-unbeaten flyweight David Jimenez, now The Ring’s No. 9 junior bantamweight contender.
The fight was the last at flyweight for Cano, who returned to the 108-pound division before dropping down three more pounds to strawweight.
