On Saturday night, Rafael “Divino” Espinoza (24-0, 20 KOs) captured the WBO featherweight world title with a majority decision win against two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez (13-2, 8 KOs) at Charles F. Dodge City Center in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The bout served as the main event of an ESPN telecast.  

Both men hit the canvas in the action packed showdown. One judge scored the fight 113-113, which was overruled by scores of 114-112 and 115-111 for Espinoza.

Prior to the fight there was talk of a Ramirez unification showdown against IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto “Venando” Lopez. Both fighters are promoted by Top Rank. 

There is no love lost between Ramirez and Lopez, with the two having had several exchanges on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Mexico’s Lopez, who has won 12 fights in a row, will now focus on trying to meet Espinoza in a unification bout. 

Lopez is guided by Hector Fernandez de Cordova, who was very impressed with Espinoza’s performance and believes Ramirez was caught looking ahead.  

“Robeisy was more focused on ‘Venado’ than on our fellow countryman Divino,” Fernandez told BoxingScene.com. “We still want to unify. Let's hope that we can make it happen. Congrats to Espinoza! Mexico has another world champion.”

As BoxingScene.com recently reported, Lopez will first make the third defense of his IBF belt versus mandatory challenger Reiya Abe on March 2, as part of an ESPN televised card.

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter