{"id":30778,"date":"2021-03-31T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T07:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/?p=30778"},"modified":"2021-03-31T07:00:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T07:00:49","slug":"zepeda-campa-to-co-headline-ramirez-taylor-on-may-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/?p=30778","title":{"rendered":"Zepeda-Campa to co-headline Ramirez-Taylor on May 22"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><figcaption>Photo by Mikey Williams\/Top Rank via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Zepeda is the WBC\u2019s top contender at 140 pounds<\/p>\n<p>Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor won\u2019t be the only elite super lightweights in action on May 22nd, as <a href=\"https:\/\/danrafael.substack.com\/p\/notebook-mma-legend-anderson-silva\">Dan Rafael reports<\/a> that WBC #1 contender Jose Zepeda will co-headline the ESPN card against Mexico\u2019s Pedro Campa.<\/p>\n<p>You may recall Campa (32-1-1, 21 KO) from the two times he pulled out of fights with noteworthy opponents. He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badlefthook.com\/2019\/12\/11\/21011744\/maurice-hooker-next-fight-december-20-new-opponent-pedro-campa-injured-dazn-boxing\">briefly set to meet Maurice Hooker in a 2019 catchweight bout before suffering an injury<\/a>, then withdrew from a February tussle with Adrien Broner just three days after getting the call <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badlefthook.com\/2021\/1\/11\/22225916\/pedro-campa-out-february-13-adrien-broner-fight-team-positive-covid-showtime-boxing-news\">when one of his team members tested positive for COVID<\/a>. He might have had a shot against Broner, who underperformed badly against eventual foe Jovanie Santiago, but he figures to be dead meat against Zepeda (33-2, 26 KO).<\/p>\n<p>That said, there\u2019s definitely some valid reasoning behind this matchup. \u201cChon\u201d is either second or third in line for a crack at the Ramirez-Taylor winner behind WBO mandatory Jack Catterall and potentially one of the WBA\u2019s many secondary titlists, so he has little incentive to risk his spot against a top-flight contender. Plus, I can\u2019t really blame the guy for taking a soft touch after earning his spot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badlefthook.com\/2020\/10\/4\/21500477\/zepeda-vs-baranchyk-results-knockout-highlights-baranchyk-unbelievable-war-fight-of-year-boxing-2020\">in an unreal slugfest with Ivan Baranchyk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rafael also revealed that top prospect Elvis Rodriguez (11-0-1, 10 KO) will meet Kenneth Sims Jr. (15-2-1, 5 KO) in an eight-rounder. Rodriguez went the distance for the first time last month against Luis Veron.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Mikey Williams\/Top Rank via Getty Images Zepeda is the WBC\u2019s top contender at 140 pounds Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor won\u2019t be the only elite super lightweights in action on May 22nd, as Dan Rafael reports that WBC #1 contender Jose Zepeda will co-headline the ESPN card against Mexico\u2019s Pedro Campa. You may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmaexchange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}