Shakur fought a masterful fight. Honestly one of the better title fight performances I've seen at 135lb over the last several years (alongside Haney vs Loma - result notwithstanding)
Zepeda started well and had most of his success in rounds 1-5 where I had him 4-1 up, mostly due to workrate and Stevenson's output being sporadic and his approach of allowing Zepeda to box him into the corner and wail away with body shots and the odd glancing head shot was not a great look IMO. Shakur made adjustments towards the end of round 5 and there was a marked change in the flow of the fight in rounds 6 & 7, where Shakur managed to keep the fight more in the centre of the ring, picking better and a wider variety of eye-catching shots, and looking more in control. Zepeda's output dipped noticeably from this point, and his aggression was markedly less effective, though he was still probably scoring as much as anyone has against Stevenson. I had it 116-112 to Stevenson, with 115-113 and 117-111 also being fine. I'd struggle to see away to a draw for Zepeda unless I was really favouring the aggressor, but after his early successes in landing, Zepeda wasn't able to find any real clear ways of managing to nullify Stevenson's should roll, jelly-like way of covering his body & head simultaneously - as someone on the RBR remarked last night, Zepeda needed some more variety with maybe an over the top haymaker to connect clean and force Shakur to change things up. Great fight though, and whilst Shakur showed he was clearly the better technician, with better shot selection, I don't think Zepeda will have lost any support; IMO it was not the one-side clinic or schooling that some were making it out to be in the RBR either. I'm most happy that Shakur didn't try and get on his bike all night - but I really don't think he had any option to do that as Zepeda is good at cutting of the ring and has incredible workrate, so credit to both fighters.
If your scoring criteria is clean, effective punching, then Shakur won that fight clear as day. If however your scoring criteria is ineffective aggression and vitriol for Shakur, then Zepeda got robbed apparently. The fight basically just became a catch and shoot drill sparring session after a while. Zepeda threw a lot of punches but was barely ever hitting scoring areas (he largely landed on gloves and arms, even most of his scoring shots were grazing with Shakur taking the steam off them). Even when Zepeda did hit Shakur, Shakur was answering back with counters which snapped Zepeda’s head back and would end up with the cleaner punches when they exchanged. Shakur’s work was just way cleaner and he hurt Zepeda practically every time he threw a combo in the second half of the fight. Shakur intentionally shot himself in the foot by not moving just to appease the fans when he could have made the fight much easier on himself by moving yet still dominated Zepeda. He stood right in the pocket and beat Zepeda at his own game. He swam without getting wet and made it an exciting fight, so give the man his flowers for once.
Anyone who says Zepeda is either unbelievably biased or unbelievably clueless on scoring fights. Stevenson won by an extremely clear margin.
And yet you would probably be saying the same if Shakur used his feet. Shakur stood his ground and exchanged with Zepeda and still gets criticised for it.
I support Shakur, I'm a Zepeda fan I felt like I scored It down the middle, 116-112, Shakur Stevenson.