{"id":284659,"date":"2025-11-15T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284659\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T12:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:20:14","slug":"rafael-espinoza-ready-for-arnold-khegai-to-come-with-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284659\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Espinoza Ready For Arnold Khegai To \u2018Come With Everything\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in over two years, Rafael Espinoza<\/a> will step back into the squared circle in his home country of Mexico.
This time, he returns as a world champion to defend his WBO featherweight title against Arnold Khegai<\/a> at Arena Potosi in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, on Saturday. Thr fight will be streamed on the Top Rank Classics FAST channel in the U.S. beginning at 8 p.m. ET\/5 p.m. PT. Espinoza knows what it\u2019s like to march into enemy territory to fight for a world title, and given that experience, he\u2019s ready for Khegai to bring everything he has in his first attempt at winning a world title.<\/p>\n

“I know what it\u2019s like to fight for a world title,\u201d Espinoza said at the final press conference on Thursday. \u201cWhen you fight for a world title, you come with everything and more. So, I know he\u2019s going to come with everything. I expect that from him, and I trained for that.”<\/p>\n

Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs) of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, will be entering his fourth world title defense. The towering 6-foot-1 champion won the world title in an upset majority decision victory over then-champion and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist for Cuba, Robeisy Ramirez<\/a>, in December 2023. Since becoming champion, Espinoza, 31, has notched three title defenses, all of which he has won by stoppage inside seven rounds, including a sixth-round TKO of Ramirez in their December 2024 rematch. Khegai<\/a> (23-2-1, 14 KOs) of Odesa, Ukraine, enters the clash off an eight-round unanimous decision win over Liborio Solis on September 12. The lone losses of the 33-year-old contender\u2019s career were decision defeats to two-division champion Stephen Fulton and three-time title challenger Joet Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m very happy because this is the biggest fight of my career so far,\u201d Khegai said. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting forever for this kind of fight, and Saturday will be a defining moment in my career.”<\/p>\n

The co-feature is an intriguing 12-round clash between undefeated Lindolfo Delgado of Linares, Nuevo Le\u00f3n, Mexico, and Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Delgado (23-0, 16 KOs) is ranked inside the top five at 140 pounds by the IBF, WBO and WBC and is coming off a majority decision victory in a 10-round fight over Elvis Rodriguez. Valenzuela (31-4-1, 17 KOs) rebounded from his eighth-round stoppage defeat to current WBC junior welterweight champion Subriel Matias<\/a> on March 1 to win a 10-round unanimous decision over Manuel Medina Barrera on May 30 in Guadalajara.
Two of Top Rank’s top prospects will also return to the ring on the undercard. Undefeated heavyweight prospect Richard Torrez Jr. takes on Tomas Salek (23-7, 14 KOs). Torrez (13-0, 11 KOs) is ranked No. 4 by the IBF and No. 11 by the WBC and WBO and enters the bout off a unanimous decision win over Guido Vianello<\/a> on April 5. One of boxing\u2019s best prospects, Emiliano Vargas (15-0, 13 KOs), will fight in his first scheduled 10-round bout against Jonathan Montrel (19-3, 13 KOs). <\/p>\n

Vargas, 21, has stopped his last six opponents and is coming off a first-round knockout of Alexander Espinoza on July 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in over two years, Rafael Espinoza will step back into the squared circle in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":{"0":"post-284659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-ca","21":"tag-canada","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}