Terence Crawford is excited about the prospect of William Zepeda potentially facing one man in particular next.
Zepeda cemented his status as one of the best 135lb fighters on the planet when he won the vacant WBC lightweight title on Saturday with a unanimous decision victory over Lamont Roach.
It saw the Mexican star return to winning ways after a defeat to Shakur Stevenson last year, and hand Roach just the second loss of his professional career, having drawn with Isaac Cruz and Gervonta Davis in his last two bouts.
Crawford was in attendance to witness Zepeda’s victory, and speaking on the TNT broadcast following the bout, he praised the performance of the new champion.
“Zepeda caught me off guard. I wasn’t ready for that. I was looking for a straight come forward type fighter, but from round one I said ‘damn look at his movement.’
“Look at his footwork. His distance, his range, his angles, his faints, his jabbing, his counter ability, his punch placement. How he was controlling the fight. Roach would hit him with a good shot, but he would eat it and come right back.”
The TNT panel then discussed a potential clash between Zepeda and current unified super-featherweight world champion Emanuel Navarrete, and Crawford made it perfectly clear what a war he thinks that could be.
“That’s CTE at its finest. You talk about a bloodbath, it’s a bloodbath waiting.”
Three-weight world champion Navarrete added the IBF super-featherweight title to his WBO crown when he defeated Eduardo Nunez back in February, and may be interested in the chance to claim gold in a fourth division by moving up to take on Zepeda.
