Rafael Espinoza made another successful defense of his WBO featherweight title, dicing up Arnold Khegai over 10 rounds and scoring what was officially an 11th round TKO.
Espinoza (28-0, 24 KO) faced a very
game effort from Khegai (23-3-1, 14 KO), but it was pretty much one-way traffic for most of the bout. Khegai’s corner kept trying to encourage their fighter with the hope that he could potentially knock Espinoza out, but the challenger landed plenty of good shots and just wasn’t able to dent the champion.
Espinoza dented Khegai plenty, leaving his face bloody and and swollen.
It was a fourth defense of the belt that Espinoza, 31, won just under two years ago, and all of the defenses have come by stoppage. There are some really intriguing potential fights out there for the Mexican star in 2026, including potential unifications with Nick Ball, Angelo Leo, or O’Shaquie Foster vs Stephen Fulton winner.
On the undercard, Emiliano Vargas (16-0, 13 KO) stayed unbeaten, but the 21-year-old super lightweight prospect got a good 10 rounds out of New Orleans’ Jonathan Montrel (19-4, 13 KO), who put the young man through the paces even if he was never any threat to win. If nothing else, Montrel’s ability to hang in, defend himself for a full 10 rounds, and land some shots gave Vargas some live-rounds pointers on what needs to be improved and tightened up.
Heavyweight prospect Richard Torrez Jr went to 14-0 (12 KO) with another pointless first round stoppage, blasting through Tomas Salek (23-8, 14 KO) with no trouble.
The night’s show-stealing fight was probably the IBF super lightweight eliminator between Lindolfo Delgado (24-0, 16 KO) and Gabriel Gollaz (31-5-1, 17 KO), which Delgado won by debatable split decision. Delgado is now in line for a fight with IBF titleholder Richardson Hitchins, which would be a very tough style matchup for the 30-year-old Mexican.
