Photos: Sumio Yamada
Unbeaten WBO featherweight champion Rafael “El Divino” Espinoza (25-0, 21 KOs) successfully made the first defense of his world title with a brutal beatdown of Sergio Chirino (22-2, 13 KOs) on Friday night inside BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. 6’1 Espinoza, the tallest featherweight champion in history, dropped Chirino with a left uppercut in round one. Espinoza busted up and floored Chirino again in round three with a body shot. The bout was finally stopped after a third knockdown in round four. Time was 2:45.
Unbeaten junior lightweight Andres “Savage” Cortes (22-0, 12 KOs) scored a controversial ten round unanimous decision over former world title challenger Abraham “El Super” Nova (23-3, 16 KOs). Nova pressed the action and did more, but the judges preferred the work of Cortes 97-93, 97-93, 96-94.
In a battle between undefeated middleweights, 2020 Olympian Troy “The Transformer” Isley (13-0, 5 KOs) outworked Javier “Milwaukee Made” Martinez (10-1-1, 3 KOs) in a 10-rounder for the vacant NABO title. Scores were 97-91, 97-91, 96-92. Both fighters were deducted a point for low blows. Isley and Martinez split four fights as amateurs before Isley broke the tie in the paid ranks.
Unbeaten bantamweight Floyd “Cash Flow” Diaz (12-0, 3 KOs) outpointed Francisco Pedroza (18-12-2, 10 KOs) over eight rounds. Scores were 78-73 3x
Other Results:
DJ Zamora W8 Jose Antonio Meza (super featherweight)
Steven Navarro W6 Juan Pablo Meza (super flyweight)
Bryan Polaco TKO3 Richard Acevedo (middleweight)
The rob to nova the fight if you to Las Vegas to fight local guy be sure you need ko.
Definitely agree with you. What is old man Moretti still scoring fights. I am 67 now, and find it difficult sometimes to watch and score matches.
Nova 6-4 or 7-3.
Espinoza wins rematch w Ramirez. Shu Shu fight???
I like the Espinoza story but he gets hit alot and will be caught by Shu Shu.
A blindman could see, NOVA WON THAT FIGHT!
very sad, nova won very clear.
Nova got robbed. If Teddy Atlas was still doing ESPN fights he would have blown a gasket.
Moretti somehow gave rounds 3 and 9 to Cortes. You had to be drunk to give round 9 to Cortes.
This judge needs to be removed from big fights, he’s ruining people’s careers and paydays scoring fights like this. It’s incompetent at best, suspicious/corrupt at worst.
Morse Jarmin has consistently turned in poor cards as well, yet keeps getting key fights in Vegas.