Rafael Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs) outshone the Times Square and Riyadh event fighters, combined with his successful defense of his WBO featherweight title by knocking out Edward Vazquez in the seventh round on Sunday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Outshines Riyadh, NYC

The 520 punches that Espinoza threw in the seven rounds were more than any of the marquee fighters threw in last Friday’s Times Square event in New York City. Rafael threw more shots than these fighters in their 12-round fights: Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez. It would be a good idea for Turki Alalshikh to scrap using those fighters for future events and focus on guys like Rafael Espinoza. Turki needs to dump the non-producers. For starters, we’re talking about the above fighters, Ryan, Haney, and Teofimo.

The performance by the 6’1″ Espinoza showed that he’s the #1 fighter at 126, because no one had ever done what he did to the warrior Vazquez. He made it look easy. Espinoza averaged 74 punches thrown in the seven rounds before referee Harvey Dock stopped it.

Espinoza systematically broke down Vazquez with hooks, uppercuts, and body shots from rounds 1 through 6 until overwhelming him with shots in round 7 to get the stoppage. Vazquez had absorbed a lot of punishment in the fight, and his face looked like a complete mess. He showed a lot of heart to stay in there with Rafael until the seventh because he was getting worked over.

Punch Stats

• • Rafael Espinoza: 207 of 520 punches thrown for 39.8%
  • Edward Vazquez: 123 of 325 for 37.8%

Avoided Champion

The downside of Espinoza’s performance is that it will likely make him even more avoided than he already is at 126. He’s not being sought out by the other featherweight champions or the top contenders. Also, when Naoya Inoue eventually moves up from super bantamweight, he’s unlikely to fight Espinoza. It’s unrealistic to assume he’ll want to fight him due to his last two performances against Vazquez and former WBO champion Robeisy Ramirez.

“I knew he was a great opponent. I knew he would come to fight. And that’s good because it allowed me to show more of my capabilities,” Rafael Espinoza said after the fight. “This is the kind of fight that people like to watch. And I like it, too. The people deserve these types of fights