Rafael Espinoza: El Divino-The Mexican Maelstrom-Towering Featherweight Tornado of Guadalajara.

Rafael Espinoza Zepeda born 4/21/1994, is a 6'1 Featherweight with a 24-0 20 KO's record. Born in and fighting out of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Sure, this might be a bit of a victory lap for me, since I saw a ton of potential in Espinoza and picked him to upset Robeisy Ramirez. But I've really liked the guy since I first laid eyes on him a little over a year ago. The first thing that came to mind was a switch hitting Antonio Margarito, who in spite of the scandal still remains one of my favorite fighters. With a similar kind of willpower and heart to Tony, Morales and Barrera. Sure, most will immediately leap to the conclusion that he's like Fundora. But I couldn't disagree more, unlike Fundora, he doesn't crouch down and give his opponent ample opportunity to tee off on him, and in the process, give away all of his advantages. No, he's cognizant of those advantages and uses all of them to the fullest extent. So my point is, he's far more skilled than someone like Fundora and even David Benavidez. I'd seen him live twice on DAZN undercards, and was quite impressed, in spite of his quicky stoppage over Rosas, it was an utter domination. That led me to check out a few of his other matches on Dailymotion, and those were quality performances as well. The fact that he's been a pro for 10 years, and been hid in the shadows for this long, is such a pity. Who knows how many FOTY contenders we've been robbed of?

Anyway, what I saw that tipped me off that he could take out Ramirez, was basically everything. His herky jerky upper body and head movement and ability to roll with and parry shots as well as his hard to time rhythm impressed me, the fluidity and unpredictability of his punches, his reach and ranginess as well as his ability to use his length to his advantage. The unrelenting sheer volume, the combinations, the angles, his persistent and stiff jab, vicious left hooks to the body, his uppercuts, his footwork and his balance combined with his ability to effortlessly cut the ring off is sterling. His unwavering focus combined with pinpoint accuracy. All of that combined told me, he was going to be hell for Robeisy and pretty much every other Featherweight to deal with. The only thing that was a question mark was his chin, but just based on all of the aforementioned qualities, told me, he had grit and a dogged determination to him and I knew he had levels and gears he could go to that no one has seen before, because of the 4 matches I'd seen, he never left 1st gear and absolutely mangled his opponents. Watch the matches I posted, you'll see what I saw as well. Think about this for a second, to come back from being nearly knocked out in the fifth, buoyed by thoughts of his daughter, combined with the fact that he fought 11 rounds with a broken foot, brings what was an incredible performance to straight up epic. Check Out The Divine Senor Espinoza in Action.

Educate Yourselves
Espinoza vs. Ramirez Highlights

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Espinoza vs. Rosas

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Espinoza vs. Laurel

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Espinoza vs. Ornelas

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Espinoza vs. Munoz

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It's because I'm incredibly goddamn creative and have a pretty deep vocabulary. But I'm not going to lie, with about 500 of these kind of threads under my belt, part of the reason I'm not doing him as much as I used to is because I've ran out of cool sounding nicknames. Although it I can usually come up with one when I'm feeling extra inspired, and Espinoza inspired the living hell out of me.

 

Absolutely, Oleksandr Mother****ing Usyk, back in 2014. Which was pretty damn unforgettable. It was titled, A Cold Wind Blows From The East-Usyk The Barbarian Will Conquer All. Not only was it one of the first Usyk threads done on here, but of these threads, easily my most prophetic and I knew full well it would be.

 

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