WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza weighed in at 125.6 lbs, whereas his opponent, Sergio Chirino, got here in at 125.6 kilos on Thursday on the weigh-in for his or her headliner this Friday night time, on June twenty first on the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The occasion can be proven reside on ESPN+ beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
(Credit score: Mikey Williams/Prime Rank)
The 6’1″ Espinoza (24-0, 20 KOs) is coming off an upset 12-round majority choice win over the two-time Olympic gold medalist and WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez final December.
That was a giant shock as a result of it seemed like Robeisy would knock out Espinoza early on after dropping him within the fifth spherical and having him harm. Nevertheless, Robeisy let Espinoza off the hook by not going to the end, and he got here again to put on him down together with his quantity punishing to get the win.
Chirino (22-1, 13 KOs) has solely misplaced as soon as earlier in his profession and has seemed good in opposition to the little-known opposition he’s been dealing with. He’s received his work minimize for him on this battle in opposition to Espinoza except he can provide you with a giant shot to knock him out.
Full Weights:
– Rafael Espinoza 125.6 vs. Sergio Chirino 125.6
– Andres Cortes 130.8 vs. Abraham Nova 129.7
– Troy Isley 158.9 vs. Javier Martinez 159.8
– Floyd Diaz 117.8 vs. Francisco Pedroza 117.5
– DJ Zamora 131.5 vs. Jose Antonio Meza 131.2
– Steven Navarro 115.7 vs. Juan Pablo Meza 114.8
– Bryan Polaco 156 vs. Richard Acevedo 156.3
“He shocked me and everyone else by beating Robeisy Ramirez, the two-time Olympic gold medalist. That was an amazing accomplishment. He’s undefeated and extremely popular in Mexico,” stated promoter Bob Arum to Sean Zittel, speaking about WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza forward of his battle this Friday night time in opposition to Sergio Chirino in Las Vegas.
“Chirino can be undefeated and well-liked. These Mexican fighters battle below the radar, after they’re introduced on the large stage, lots of them carry out very effectively. I believe that is going to be a really thrilling battle on Friday night time.
“The fighters do the combating. We do the selling and organize who fights whom. If all of the fights adopted a script, it wouldn’t be attention-grabbing,” stated Arum, discussing Espinoza’s upset win not too long ago in opposition to WBO 126-lb champion Robeisy.
“What makes boxing attention-grabbing is Espinoza’s upset with Ramirez. We’ve got Espinoza combating subsequent week in Florida, and if he comes by and Espinoza comes by, we’ll do a rematch as a result of it was a really attention-grabbing battle final time they fought.
“Everyone is jockeying within the featherweight division as a result of the world is subsequent yr; Inoue will go as much as featherweight,” stated Arum.
