Time is a precious thing. It's one of the few things you can never get back. Lamont Roach Jr. can never get 2025 back, even though he'd like to steal that time back. A former 130-pound champion, Roach gets the opportunity to wipe out the year that was on Saturday night when he meets William Zepeda for the vacant WBC 135-pound title in the main event in Las Vegas, live on DAZN worldwide and on TNT Sports. Roach (25-1-3) is coming off back-to-back majority draws in March 2025 against Gervonta Davis for the WBA lightweight title and then in December versus Issac Cruz for the interim WBC junior welterweight title. Both of those fights should have gone Roach's way, but bad judging prevented him from getting two world-class wins. World title opportunities are hard enough to come by, but the fact that Roach is getting his third in three fights is a testament to him and how those contests with David and Cruz were viewed.
Because of that, Saturday's clash with Zepeda is a must-win for Roach.
Roach is going to have to go to places that he didn't go against Davis and Cruz. Hopefully, he and his team rewatched those bouts on several occasions to see what went wrong and where he could be more effective so he leaves no doubt this time around.
That's going to be easier said than done considering who will be standing across the ring from him on Saturday in the fight capital of the world.
Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) only knows one way to fight. And that's going forward and throwing punches in bunches. The native of Mexico is looking to throw and throw with authority. He forced Shakur Stevenson to engage, and it's been regarded as the four-division world champion's most exciting fight to date. The result didn't go Zepeda's way as Stevenson proved to be slick enough and landed the cleaner shots to escape New York with the decision win in July 2025.
Roach should follow the blueprint from Stevenson and let the chips fall where they fall. If Roach doesn't and he comes up short yet again, then it will be a long time, if ever, that the Maryland native will sniff a world championship opportunity.
