WBO world champion Rafeal Espinoza is, if he has not done so already, eager to cement himself as the most formidable featherweight on the planet.
There is an almost villainous quality whenever he marches onto the front foot, his towering frame only enhancing the sheer presence behind each pressurizing step.
And it was that spiteful style, combined with a sprinkle of gamesmanship, which ultimately saw Espinoza, 27-0 (23 KOs), secure an emphatic seventh-round stoppage victory over Edward Vazquez.
The pair squared off last night at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, featuring on the undercard of Naoya Inoue vs Ramon Cardenas.
But as expected, it was Espinoza’s relentless pressure and diverse repertoire of attacks that saw him make a third successful defence of his WBO strap.
Vazquez, 17-3 (4 KOs), to his credit, got off to a strong start, landing several looping shots over the top of his opponent’s loose guard through the first six minutes.
During that time, too, ‘Kid’ was able to close the distance and unleash a series of short combinations on the inside, putting his compact but powerful frame to good use.
Espinoza, however, soon disrupted his momentum with a stabbing right hand to the body, forcing Vazquez to retreat in the third round.
With his opponent left visibly hurt by the shot, the champion then marched forward – targeting Vazquez’s midsection once again, while also threading a sequence of right uppercuts through the middle of his guard – in a dominant end to the frame.
The following round told a similar story, with Espinoza delivering a punishing barrage of attacks, his spindly levers enjoying an almost carefree sense of fluidity, at long-range.
At the same time, though, the Mexican would often allow his elbows and forearms to protrude while trading at close quarters, knowing that his dark arts would likely pass the referee by.
Sure enough, the 31-year-old was at no point reprimanded for his fouls and could therefore resume his ruthless onslaught in the fourth round.
By which point, Espinoza had hurt Vazquez to the body once again, before stamping his foot on the gas and coming inches away from securing an early finish.
His feet, more than anything, proved both dynamic and pulsating, as while his build remains somewhat gangly, there is a constant sturdiness to his movement.
After two more frames of thudding uppercuts and sickening body shots, Espinoza then put together a blistering flurry which referee Harvey Dock, rightfully so, identified as an opportunity to draw a halt to their one-sided contest.
