Rafael Espinoza captured the WBO featherweight world title in dramatic circumstances when he upset sensible Cuban Robeisy Ramirez.
Of their 12-round thriller Mexico’s Espinoza rose from the canvas within the fifth spherical to place Ramirez down within the final to edge a detailed majority choice win.
He makes his first defence of the title towards Mexican rival Sergio Chirino Sanchez in Las Vegas, dwell on Sky Sports activities Motion at 2am on Saturday morning.
Prime Rank promoter Bob Arum expects their world title struggle to be all motion.
“First of all, [Espinoza] had a great record in Mexico. He was known as a knockout guy and a very crowd-pleasing fighter and then we brought him to fight Robeisy Ramirez, assuming it would be a good test for Ramirez and lo and behold Espinoza won the fight,” Arum informed Sky Sports activities.
“It may very well be that he is one of these fighters that’s a jewel, that’s going to be very hard for anybody to beat.”
Arum suspects he may have a brand new star on his arms.
“That’s what we’ll see on Saturday. He’s fighting a very tough Mexican guy. I understand that they sparred together at one point and had hellacious sessions,” he revealed.
“That kind of fighter and those kind of fights is what builds stars.”
Ramirez returns to motion the next weekend on the Teofimo Lopez undercard, additionally dwell on Sky Sports activities subsequent Saturday.
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US Olympian Troy Isley got here out on high when he confronted Marcos Hernandez from Turning Stone Resort On line casino
The primary Ramirez-Espinoza struggle was so good, Arum expects to make a second earlier than the winner then strikes on to featherweight title unifications.
“I would want to run back the Robeisy Ramirez fight because that was such an upset and if he does it again – Robeisy was one of the best amateurs ever, two Olympic gold medals – then we know we really have something big on our hands,” he mentioned.
“We have so many of the really good featherweights that we can make some interesting fights for him.”
On the undercard at Fontainebleau Las Vegas unbeaten prospects Andres Cortes and Troy Isley are each taking vital challenges.
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Troy Isley lands an influence punch
Cortes goes in with former world title challenger Abraham Nova, whereas Isley meets fellow unbeaten middleweight Javier Martinez.
“They’re in tough. No more fooling around building up their records. They’re in very, very competitive fights and that’s the way it should be and that’s why they’ve moved from the bottom of the bill to the top of the bill,” Arum mentioned.
“Cortes, who’s a local kid from Vegas, will be fighting Nova who’s been in many main events and this is a big, big, big step up for Cortes. And Isley is going to fight another one of our fighters Javier Martinez, also in a terrific, terrific battle. I understand they were rivals in the amateurs.
“So it’ll be a really, very enjoyable good card.”
Watch Espinoza vs Sanchez dwell on Sky Sports activities Motion from 2am on Saturday morning
