Espino Puts Title on Line at Forum
Cecilio Espino of Monterey Park makes the second defense of his North American Boxing Federation bantamweight title when he meets Jose Valdez of Mexico on Monday night at the Forum.
Espino (22-2, 19 knockouts) scored an 11th-round technical knockout of Luigi Camputaro in January to win the title. He is ranked No. 13 by the World Boxing Council but is expected to face a strong challenge from the experienced Valdez, who is 40-4-1 with 27 KOs. Valdez is ranked No. 18 by the WBC.
Espino made his first title defense on April 21 at the Forum by scoring a fifth-round technical knockout of Antonio Ramirez.
Heavyweight Levi Billups (16-6, nine KOs), a former linebacker with the Los Angeles Express of the defunct United States Football League, opposes Joel Humm (13-4-1, 10 KOs) in a co-feature.
The card begins at 7 with preliminaries.
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