Rafael Espinoza says he’s improved from his previous fight against former WBO welterweight champion Robeisi Ramirez last year on December 9, and will be ready to beat him a second time this Saturday, December 7 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona .
(Credit: Top Rank)
Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) will defend his WBO 126 lb title against two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisi (14-2, 9 KOs). The event will be displayed live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT.
The fight was very competitive until the 12th when Espinoza pounced on a tired Robeisi to drop him and won by a 12 round majority decision.
No excuses
“When I’m in a fight, I like to decide what I’m going to do and adapt to it.” 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,” Rafael Espinoza told Sean Zittel. channelreacting to being told that Robeisi Ramirez said he wanted to strike between his combinations on Saturday.
“Sometimes I like to go forward to get the results I want to put on the gas.” “I will try to do everything intelligently in the ring,” continued Espinoza. “I don’t know what happened to him, but I expect the best version of Robeisi.” I want the best version, and I don’t want excuses. I will also try to give the best version of myself.”
Espinoza will land a lot of punches in this fight, and he has to hope that he can take on the power of Robeisi as he came close to being knocked out in the fifth round after being dropped. Espinoza was fortunate that the knockdown came in the final seconds of the round.
“I’ve improved a lot since the first fight (with Ramirez) in all areas, physically with my strength.” I worked on the mistakes I made so that I could do things flawlessly. There are no distractions, and my mentality is on top. So in the first fight I didn’t give up, and in the second 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 Robeisi as he has only fought the very beatable Sergio Quirin Sanchez once, stopping him in the fourth round on June 21st. Unfortunately, we won’t know if Espinoza has improved until he faces Robeisi this Saturday night.
Robeisi says he wasn’t at his best for the previous fight against Espinosa because his father was in the hospital and he wasn’t ready. This time, he believes he will be ready and have the right game plan to beat Espinoza.
“I don’t like to say if I’m going to knock out because those words blow in the wind.” So what I’m going to do is try my best to fight so there’s no doubt what’s going to happen. I have been in this division (perolaška) for a long time. I was well maintained. It all depends on my body. I would like to unite. If I can stay in this division, it won’t be a problem. I plan to stay in this division for a long time, no problem – said Espinoza.
If Espinoza stays at 126, he will eventually outgrow this weight class and start taking losses. It might be better for him to move up to 130 while still fighting at a high level because he can use the money that would be available for him to fight WBO featherweight champion Emmanuel Navarrete. There is a winnable fight against WBC champion O’Shaquille Foster.
