Undefeated WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) made it look simple in a voluntary protection of his title by obliterating Sergio Chirino (22-2, 13 KOs) by a fourth-round knockout on Friday evening on the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
The tall, stork-like Espinoza caught a very aggressive Chirino with a brief left uppercut in spherical one to knock him down.
In spherical three, Espinoza, 30, caught Chirino with a right-hand physique shot that put him down late within the spherical.
The ultimate knockdown got here within the fourth when Espinoza caught Chirino with a sequence of uppercuts that put him down. The referee then stopped the struggle at 2:45 of the fourth.
Espinoza’s stress, excessive work price, uppercuts, and physique photographs proved to be an excessive amount of for Chirino.
Greater than something, I believe the uppercuts had been an excessive amount of for Chirino as a result of he left himself open for them by loading up on lengthy right-hand energy photographs. Nonetheless, even the opposite punches that Espinoza was throwing gave Chirino big issues all through the brief four-round contest.
Espinoza expressed curiosity in preventing a rematch towards Robeisy Ramirez within the post-fight interview.
The 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, Robeisy, had misplaced his WBO 126-lb title to Espinoza final December by a 12-round majority choice in a aggressive struggle. Robeisy had Espinoza down within the struggle within the fifth however couldn’t put him away.
Andres Cortes Defeats Abraham Nova
Within the chief assist bout, hometown fighter, tremendous featherweight Andres Cortes (22-0, 12 KOs) gained a disturbingly controversial ten-round unanimous choice towards Abraham Nova (23-3, 16 KOs).
The struggle was a textbook instance of a complete theft, as Nova dominated an out-of-shape-looking Cortes, showing to win the final seven rounds after getting off to a poor begin within the first three rounds.
Nova pressured Cortes nonstop from the fourth spherical on, throwing twice as many punches than him and forcing him to carry because of the quick tempo. The scores had been 97-93, 97-93, 96-94. I had it 7-3 for Nova.
Cortes threw lots of rabbit punches all through the struggle with out the referee warning or deducting factors It’s unclear how the ref didn’t take discover of the rabbit photographs as a result of they had been incessant and a giant a part of Cortes’ sport on the within.
“I began a bit sluggish. However then I acquired my rhythm. I went in there, and I did what I needed to do. He hit me quite a bit behind the top,” stated Nova after the struggle.
Troy Isley Beats Javier Martinez
Middleweight Troy Isley (13-0, 5 KOs) beat Javier Martinez (10-1-1, 3 KOs) by a 10-rounder in a contest full of low blows by each guys. Each landed frequent photographs under the belt, making referee Tony Weeks earn his pay tonight. Martinez misplaced some extent within the seventh, and Isley was docked some extent in spherical 9.
The scores had been 97-91, 97-91, 96-92. Neither fighter regarded notably spectacular, however Isley was rather less unhealthy.
Floyd Diaz Beats Francisco Pedroza
Undefeated bantamweight Floyd “Money Stream” Diaz (12-0, 3 KOs) had a surprisingly robust struggle towards journeyman Francisco Pedroza (18-12-2, 10 KOs), needing to battle onerous to beat him by an eight-round unanimous choice. The scores had been 78-73 3, 78-73 and 78-73. Each fighters had been damage within the contest.
