Rafael Espinoza Upsets Robeisy Ramirez; Wins WBO Featherweight Title in Florida

Top Rank was in the Miami area tonight in the community of Pembroke Pines with a show headlined by a pair of Latin American standouts who had home field advantage in the Sunshine State. Fans of defending WBO world featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez left disappointed but their dismay was tempered by the fact they got to witness one of the best of the fights of the year.

Guadalajara import Rafael Espinoza was undefeated coming in and had knocked out 18 of his 21 opponents. But having fought almost exclusively in Mexico against suspect opposition and with only 11 amateur fights under his belt, he was a massive underdog to Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Cuba who had won 13 straight after stumbling in his pro debut and was making the second defense of the title he won with a 12-round decision over Isaac Dogboe in Tulsa.

The lanky Espinoza, who at six-foot-one had a seven-inch height advantage, exuded confidence as he awaited the opening bell and won the first four rounds with his superior workrate. In round five, however, Ramirez put him down hard with with a brutal right hook. There were mere seconds to go in the round or the Mexican would not have survived it.

The momentum then resided with Ramirez. However, Espinoza, despite eating several more harsh punches, would simply not go away. Despite his high workrate he still had plenty of fuel in his tank in the championship rounds and sealed the deal when he knocked Ramirez down in the final stanza with a whirlwind of punches, none of which landed solidly but were yet sufficient to produce a 10-8 round.

One of the judges scored it a draw, but the others favored Rafael Espinoza (115-111 and 114-112) whose gritty effort produced a changing of the guard in the 126-pound division.

Semi-final

Fighting before a sold-out crowd thick with his fellow Puerto Ricans, Xander Zayas turned up the heat and stopped Spain’s Jorge Fortea in the third round. The 21-year-old Zayas, who spent his high school years in South Florida, had Fortea on the deck with a body punch in the waning seconds of the opening round and ended the fight two rounds later with another body punch, a left hook to the liver that forced Fortea (24-4-1) to slump to the canvas after a delayed reaction.

The 21-year-old Zayas, who improved to 18-0 (12 KOs) will be back in the ring on Feb. 16 at Madison Square Garden with Brazil’s Patrick Teixeira, a former WBO 154-pound title-holder, in the opposite corner.

Other Bouts

Former national amateur champion Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington, a 26-year-old Brooklynite, scored his career-best win with a second-round demolition of Albuquerque’s Jason Sanchez. Carrington (11-0, 7 KOs) decked Sanchez in the second round with a double left hook and then put him on the canvas again with a left-right-left combination just as the round ended. The second knockdown forced the stoppage.

Sanchez, 16-4 heading in, was better than his record. He had gone 12 rounds with Oscar Valdez and 12 rounds in Wales with Zelfa Barrett in his previous fight.

Richard Torrez Jr, the pride of Tulare, California, kept his knockout streak alive with an eighth-round stoppage of Tennessee trial horse Curtis Harper. The official time was 2:03 of the eighth and final round.

Torrez, a buzz saw, had answered the bell for only 11 rounds as a pro heading in. The Olympic silver medalist, now 8-0, won every minute of every round before the match was halted, but the rub on him is that he lacks one-punch knockout power. Harper (14-11, 1 NC) was fighting an undefeated opponent for the fourteenth time.

In a spirited 8-rounder between junior middleweights, Argentina’s Francisco Daniel Veron (13-0-1) and Jahi Tucker (10-1-1) battled to a draw. One of the judges favored Tucker 77-75 but each of his colleagues had it 76-76.

The 20-year-old Tucker from Deer Park, Long Island, was moving up in class on the heels of his first pro loss. In Veron, Tucker was meeting a Tokyo Olympian. He salvaged a draw with a strong final round.

Junior welterweight Rohan Polanco of the Dominican Republic, a Tokyo Olympian, advanced to 11-0 (7 KOs) with a sixth-round TKO over Keith Hunter. (15-2). Polanco, a 12/1 favorite, was physically stronger and his punches carried more thud.

Hunter, a second-generation prizefighter, lost his composure when referee Christopher Young stopped the contest with four seconds remaining in the round and had to be restrained by his brother Michael Hunter, the heavyweight contender, who worked Keith’s corner along with chief trainer Bones Adams.

Cleveland welterweight Delante “Tiger” Johnson improved to 11-0 with an 8-round split decision over Mexico’s Jimmer Espinoza (15-2). The scores were 79-73 and 78-74 for Johnson and 77-75 for Espinoza.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty images

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