Robeisy Ramirez will be making his second defense of his WBO featherweight title this Saturday, December 9, on ESPN against unbeaten challenger Rafael Espinoza at the Charles F. Dodge City Center in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
The two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist (13-1, 8 KOs) will be giving away a lot of height and reach against the 6’1″ Espinoza (21-0, 18 KOs), so it should be interesting to see how he deals with his size disadvantage against the Mexican fighter.
Not much is known about the 29-year-old Espinoza, as he’s a fringe contender at #11 WBO and has been toiling away in obscurity in Mexico, fighting weak opposition.
In that respect, he’s another Oscar Duarte type of fighter with a built-up resume, filled with opposition with poor records.
In the chief support bout, unbeaten junior middleweight contender Xander Zayas (17-0, 11 KOs) faces Jorge Fortea (24-3-1, 9 KOs) in a ten round contest.
The Robeisy vs. Espinoza card will be shown live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+ beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
Next year, we could see Robeisy defending his WBO 126-lb title against Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue in a massive fight if the Japanese star successfully defeats Marlon Tapales on December 26th in their super bantamweight undisputed championship.
If Robeisy can defeat the highly ranked pound-for-pound star Naoya, it would be a major victory for him. Inoue is seen as unbeatable by many boxing fans, but there’s going to come a time when he’s going to hit his ceiling for what he’s capable of doing.
If Inoue is able to defeat Robeisy, he’s got an excellent chance of capturing the other three titles in the 126-lb division to become the undisputed champion.
What could be a problem for Inoue is if he chooses to go up to 130 and take on the hulking WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete, who has the height and arm length of a middleweight.
The size of Navarrete could prove to be a barrier to Inoue going past the 126-lb division if he’s able to defeat the top dog, Robeisy, which is a big if.
Undercard
Xander Zayas vs. Jorge Fortea
Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington vs. Jason Sanchez
Jahi Tucker (10-1, 5 KOs) vs. Francisco Daniel Veron
Rohan Polanco vs. Keith Hunter
Tiger Johnson vs. Jimmer Espinosa
Damian “Polish Hussar” Knyba vs. Scott Alexander
Robeisy has fought twice this year, defeating Satoshi Shimizu and Isaac Dogboe. He’s won his last 13 fights as a pro since losing his debut by an upset four round split decision to Adan Gonzales in August 2019.
Robeisy avenged the loss with a one-sided six round unanimous decision in 2020.
What a year for @RobeisyRamirez ❤️ pic.twitter.com/vyFVmgNk8Q
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) December 5, 2023
