Rafael ‘El Divino’ Espinoza (28-0, 24 KOs) held onto his WBO featherweight title with a Tenth-round corner stoppage of fringe contender Arnold Khegai (23-3-1, 14 KOs) on Saturday night within the important event on the Arena Coliseo, San Luis Potosi, in Mexico.
Uppercuts Do the Heavy Lifting
Khegai’s corner selected not to permit him to come back out for the eleventh round attributable to his left eye being cut and badly swollen from the punishment he’d taken from the lanky 6’1″ Espinoza. A clash of heads in round seven caused a cut over Khegai’s left eye, along with significant swelling.
Espinoza had used his combination punching and uppercuts on the within to dominate the much shorter 5’5″ Ukraine-born Khegai. Within the seventh and the tenth, Espinoza went for broke, attempting to attain a knockout of Khegai by attacking him with a flurry. It didn’t work.
The hand speed, power, and maneuverability of Khegai allowed him to last through the tenth round before being pulled out by his corner.
Early on, the referee warned Khegai for throwing rabbit punches, as he’d been looping his shots to try to achieve the highest of Espinoza’s head. He was forced to try this attributable to Espinoza’s height advantage.
Khegai’s Corner Hits the Panic Button
Khegai’s trainer warned him after the eighth round that he was going to stop the fight unless he showed him something. He responded well within the ninth and tenth, nailing Espinoza with big rights to the pinnacle that he took well. They were shots that might have hurt a variety of fighters.
The fight was correctly halted after the tenth by Khegai’s team because he was too beat up and much behind in the competition to permit the bout to proceed.
Overall, it was a superb performance by Espinoza. He showed the identical high-volume work rate that had worked for him in his recent fights. On the downside, he was hit hard by Khegai often within the fight.
Fortunately for Espinoza, he didn’t get hit enough to wobble him like we’d seen in his first fight against Robeisy Ramirez. Still, tonight’s contest showed that eventually, Espinoza will get knocked out when he goes up against a large enough puncher because he’s too easy to hit.
Vargas Survives a Hard Night
Within the co-feature bout, light welterweight Emiliano Vargas (16-0, 12 KOs) defeated veteran Jonathan Montrel (19-4, 15 KOs) by a tougher-than-expected 10-round unanimous decision. Vargas landed a textbook rabbit punch in round one, causing Montrel, 35, to take a knee.
Although he complained to the referee that he’d been hit with a punch behind the pinnacle, he allowed the knockdown to face.
Montrel showed a variety of heart, trying his best to match Vargas with power shots to the body and head. Within the last three rounds, Vargas gave up attempting to knock Montrel out and just focused on winning the choice.
The scores
Delgado Scrapes Through Controversy
Lindolfo Delgado (24-0, 16 KOs) needed to rise up off the deck within the twelfth to go on to defeat Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela by a controversial 12-round split decision in an IBF light welterweight title eliminator. The scores were 114-113, 114-113 for Delgado, and 114-113 for Gollaz.
Delgado was eating left hooks your entire fight by the more powerful Valenzuela, and he looked just like the clear loser.
With the win, the Top Rank-promoted DelGado becomes the mandatory challenger to IBF 140-lb champion Richardson Hitchins.
Last Updated on 11/16/2025