Mikey Williams/Top Rank Boxing
Fight of the Year, Round of the Year, and Knockout of the Year are all sorted for boxing in 2020.
Whatever purses Jose Zepeda ( and Ivan Baranchyk received for Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing main event in Las Vegas was not enough. It’s a damn shame there were no fans to scream their heads off in-person for what will go down as one of the craziest, most insane high-level boxing matches you’ll ever see.
This ten-round junior welterweight battle had title shot implications for both men, and these two delivered even more action than what was promised on paper. There were EIGHT knockdowns split evenly at four apiece, and all of this action occurred within FIVE rounds.
The last knockdown was delivered by Zepeda (33-2-2 NC, 26 KOs), who wiped out former IBF world champion Baranchyk (20-2, 13 KOs) with an astonishingly violent and accurate left hand. This occurred literally seconds after Zepeda was dropped. Baranchyk bent backwards and he was out for several minutes. Thankfully he was eventually alert and responsive.
We’ll do a post featuring all of the knockdowns but for now just marvel at the KO and how epic this fight was.
Jose Zepeda folded Ivan Baranchyk like a lawn chair @ESPNRingside pic.twitter.com/dFy1KqDcBU
— ESPN (@espn) October 4, 2020
?? MUST. WATCH. CLIP. ??
Unbelievable.#SCTop10 x #ZepedaBaranchyk pic.twitter.com/cyYe4sR2nQ
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 4, 2020
Yes. That happened.