WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza (28-0, 24 KOs) scored a 10th-round knockout over #9 Arnold Khegai (23-3-1, 14 KO) on Saturday night in a Top Rank-promoted show at the Arena Coliseo, San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Ukrainian Khegai, 33, was pulled out by his corner after the tenth round. His left eye was busted up, and he had a bloody nose. He was just too beaten up by Espinoza to be allowed to continue.
Khegai’s corner had warned him before the ninth round that he needed to show them something, or they would have the bout halted. Although he did fight well in rounds nine and ten, it wasn’t enough.
Espinoza had outlanded Khegai in every round of the fight. Both of the challenger’s eyes were badly swollen by round eight because he’d been hit too much. Khegai did land occasional huge shots, but there weren’t enough of them for him to be competitive against the lanky 6’1″ Espinoza.
The fight showed the positives and the negatives in Espinoza’s game. On the plus side, his high work rate ground Khegai’s face up. However, Espinoza showed a vulnerability on defense; getting hit with shots could have given him trouble if Khegai was busier. His power and speed were superior to Espinoza by a long shot.
In the chief support bout, light welterweight contender Emiliano Vargas (16-0, 12 KOs) had to battle hard to win a 10-round unanimous decision over Jonathan Montrel (19-4-0, 15 KOs). Vargas landed a punch behind the head of Montrel to force him to take a knee in round one. Montrel complained to the referee repeatedly that Vargas had hit him behind the head, but he chose to rule it a knockdown. The scores were:100-89, 99-90, and 99-90.
Vargas got hit a lot in this fight by Montrel, taking shots to the head and body. It was one of those fights where the overmatched fighter still dished out a lot of punishment just by staying in there and landing shots of his own. The body shots that Montrel landed throughout the fight appeared to take away a lot of Vargas’ power in the later rounds.
Lindolfo Delgado (25-0, 16 KOs) defeated Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela (31-5-1, 17 KOs) 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. In the 12th round, Gollaz dropped Delgado with a big left hook to the head.
