Fort Worth's Edward "Kid" Vazquez, 17-2 (4), will get a much-deserved world title fight on May 4th, on the undercard of Naoya Inoue vs Ramon Cardenas in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the same card as the San Antonio native, Cardenas looks to become a world champion and pull the upset of the century. Vazquez will become the first Fort Worthian to hold a world title since Paulie Ayala when he challenges Rafael Espinoza. Espinoza, 26-0 (22), captured the WBO featherweight title in December of 2013, in the upset of that year, by outpointing Cuban Robeisy Ramirez. Espinoza, a native of Jalisco, Mexico, has defended his WBO title twice, most recently stopping Ramirez in the rematch back in December.
Vazquez fought valiantly and dropped a highly controversial Majority decision to Joe Cordina in 2023 for the IBF Super Featherweight title. The Texan fought twice in 2024, picking up dominant wins over Daniel Bailey in Houston, and then stopped Kenneth Taylor in four one-sided rounds in October to pick up the IBF USBA Super Featherweight. It's been three years since Vazquez suffered the Robbery of the Year in a decision loss to former world champion Raymond Ford, a loss that Vazquez was so dominant in that it instantly made him a legit world title contender. Vazquez will look to pick up a title in his more natural 126-pound weight class, just a weight class ahead of Inoue-Cardenas, and a Vazquez win could logically set up a future showdown with the winner of that matchup.