In a pair of rematches, WBO Featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza defends against two-time Olympic Cuban gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez, and WBO 130-lb champ Emanuel Navarrete faces Oscar Valdez on December 7th in a Top Rank-promoted show at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The diamond gem on this card is the rematch between the 6’1″ stork-like Espinoza and the Cuban talent Robeisy. That’s the keeper. Espinoza and Robeisy went to war last year on December 9th, trading shots in a fight that the judges gave to the Mexican knockout artist. Espinoza was dropped in the fifth but came on late to win a 12-round majority decision.
The rematch between Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) and Robeisy (14-2, 9 KOs) is the co-feature bout on the card, but it’s the one to watch for fans. There’s not much interest from fans in the pointless main event fight between recently beaten Navarrete (38-2-1, 31 KOs) and Valdez (32-2, 24 KOs).
It’s unclear why Top Rank bothered to make the rematch between Navarrete and Valdez because their fight a year ago was as one-sided as it could be. Obviously, this is more of a business-level fight than a sporting one. Navarrete should be defending against Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez or fighting a rematch against WBC champion Robson Conceicao, who clearly deserved a win against him last November in their fight that inexplicably scored a 12-round draw in Las Vegas. Conceicao dominated Navarrete and deserved a win, but the Nevada judges scored it a draw. Navarrete looked horrible in that fight, getting nailed with hard shots all night by Conceicao.
Their last year on August 12th was a mismatch, with Navarrete taking advantage of his massive size to dominate Valdez, who looked tiny inside the ring next to the welterweight-sized fighter.
The scores were:
– 116-112
– 118-110
– 119-109
The more accurate score of the three was the 119-109 one, with Navarrete dominating Valdez, making him look old and small. That’s not to say that Navarrete was great. He’s clearly not the fighter he once was years ago, but against Valdez, he looked outstanding.
