Rafael Espinoza says he’s improved since his previous fight against the former WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez last year on December 9th, and he’s going to be ready to defeat him a second time this Saturday, December 7th at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
(Credit: Top Rank)
Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) will be defending his WBO 126-lb title that he won against the two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy (14-2, 9 KOs). The event will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
The fight was very competitive until the 12th when Espinoza flurried on a tired Robeisy to drop him to win a 12-round majority decision.
No Excuses
“When I’m in the fight, I like to decide what I’m going to do and adjust to that. I do things so they don’t hurt me as much. I try to box and not get hit and leave everything in the ring,” said Rafael Espinoza to the Sean Zittel channel, reacting to being told that Robeisy Ramirez said he wants to land his shots between his combinations on Saturday.
“Sometimes I like to go ahead to get the results that I want to push on the gas. I’m going to try and do everything intelligently in the ring,” Espinoza continued. “I don’t know what happened to him, but I do expect the best version of Robeisy. I want the best version, and I don’t want any excuses. I’m also going to try and give the best version of myself as well.”
Espinoza is going to get hit a lot in this fight, and he’s got to hope that he can take the power of Robeisy because he was close to being knocked out in the fifth round after being dropped. It was fortunate for Espinoza that the knockdown came in the final seconds of the round.
“I improved a lot since the first fight [with Ramirez] in all areas, physically with my strength. I worked on the mistakes that I made so I can do things impeccably. There are no distractions as well, and my mentality is at the top. So, in the first fight, I didn’t give up, and in this second fight, that word doesn’t even cross my mind,” said Espinoza.
We don’t know if the 6’1″ Espinoza has improved since his win over Robeisy because he only fought once against a very beatable Sergio Chirino Sanchez, stopping him in the fourth round on June 21st. Unfortunately, we won’t know if Espinoza has improved until he faces Robeisy this Saturday night.
Robeisy says he wasn’t at his best for the previous fight against Espinoza because his father was in the hospital, and he wasn’t prepared. This time, he believes he will be ready and will have the right game plan to defeat Espinoza.
“I don’t like to say if I’m going to knockout because those words blow in the wind. So, what I’m going to do is give my best fight so there’s no doubt what happens. I’ve been in this division for a long time [featherweight]. I’ve maintained myself well. It all depends on my body. I would like to unify. If I can stay in this division, it’ll be no problem. I plan on staying in this division a long time, no problems,” said Espinoza.
If Espinoza stays at 126, he’s going to end up outgrowing this weight class and start suffering losses. It might be better for him to move up to 130 while he’s still fighting at a high level because he can take advantage of the money that would be available fighting WBO super featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete. There’s a winnable fight against WBC champion O’Shaquie Foster.
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