Unbeaten WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) easily made his own defense of his title with a dominant fourth-round knockout victory over Sergio Chirino (22-2, 13 KOs) on Friday night at the Blue Live Theater at Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.
The tall, stork-like Espinoza caught an overly aggressive Chirino with a short left uppercut in the first round, knocking him down.
In the third round, the 30-year-old Espinoza landed a right body shot on Chirino, knocking him down late in the round.
The final knockdown came in the fourth round, when Espinoza caught Chirino with successive uppercuts, knocking him down. The referee stopped the bout at 2 minutes, 45 seconds into the fourth round.
Espinoza's pressure, high energy, uppercuts and body shots were too much for Chirino to handle.
More than anything, I think the uppercuts were too powerful, as Chirino used a lot of long power right shots that left him open to the uppercuts, but the rest of Espinoza's punches also took their toll on Chirino throughout the short four-round bout.
In his post-fight interview, Espinoza expressed interest in a rematch with Robbie Ramirez.
Robisi, a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, lost his WBO 126-pound title to Espinoza in December after a hard-fought 12-round bout. Robisi knocked Espinoza down in the fifth round but was unable to finish him off.
Andres Cortes defeats Abraham Nova
In the main supporting bout, local super featherweight Andres Cortez (22-0, 12 KOs) defeated Abraham Nova (23-3, 16 KOs) in a controversial 10-round unanimous decision victory.
The bout was a textbook example of a total robbery, with Nova dominating an out-of-shape Cortez and appearing to win the final seven rounds after getting off to a poor start in the first three.
Nova put nonstop pressure on Cortez from the 4th round onwards, landing twice as many punches as Cortez and keeping the pace up to force Cortez into holds. Scores 97-93, 97-93, 96-94. I predicted Nova would win 7-3.
Cortez used rabbit punches multiple times throughout the bout without receiving a warning or point deduction from the referee. It is unclear why the referee did not notice them, given that they were constantly being thrown and were a big part of Cortez's inside play.
“I started off a little slow, but then I got into my rhythm, I went on the offensive, I did what I had to do, he hit me in the back of the head a lot,” Nova said after the match.
Troy Isley defeats Javier Martinez
Middleweight Troy Eisley (13-0, 5 KOs) defeated Javier Martinez (10-1-1, 3 KOs) in a 10 round bout filled with low blows on both sides. Both fighters landed punches below the belt frequently and referee Tony Weeks paid the price tonight, with Martinez being deducted one point in the seventh round and Eisley being deducted one point in the ninth round.
The scores were 97-91, 97-91, 96-92. Neither fighter was particularly impressive, but Isley was a little better.
Floyd Diaz defeats Francisco Pedrosa
Unbeaten bantamweight fighter Floyd “Cash Flow” Diaz (12-0, 3 KOs) had a surprisingly tough fight against veteran Francisco Pedroza (18-12-2, 10 KOs) and struggled to win an eight-round unanimous decision by scores of 78-73 3, 78-73, 78-73. Both fighters suffered injuries during the bout.
