[Crimson]

Tuesday, September 22nd, 1992
Veterans Memorial Coliseum; Phoenix, AZ
Louie Espinoza 47-5-3 (45) Arizona WBA
vs.
Jesse James Leija 24-0-1 (12) Texas IBF
- After traveling on the road in Korea to take the WBA title, the 30 year old Louie Espinoza was happy to be back home in Arizona for the biggest fight of his career. The title WBA/IBF title unification match was being televised on “Tuesday Night Fights” and was expected to put up record numbers for the USA network.
- The vastly more experienced Louie Espinoza, who had turned pro in 1982 and won his first of 3 World Titles in 1987, was a slight 3-2 betting favorite to win this unification showdown.
- The up and coming Leija had plenty of his own supporters make the trip from San Antonio to the nearly filled to capacity 14,870 seat Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
- Espinoza worked on improving his speed in training camp and was reportedly successful. As he has for his past few fights, Leija battled the scales. The 5’6 Espinoza held a 1” height advantage over Leija.
- The power punching Espinoza came right at Leija and quickly had the Texan in trouble. Almost every punch of Espinoza’s has the possibility of knocking his opponent out cold. Leija’s knee almost touched the canvas after one exchange and the Arizona crowd cheered in approval of the work being done by their native son.
- Leija came out on his toes for round 2, in an attempt to follow the instructions of his trainer Ronnie Shields. Espinoza resumed raking Leija’s body with hooks.
- Leija showed good resiliency by taking the 3rd round with clean boxing.
- The right eye of Espinoza was beginning to close (6). Leija was providing evidence that he has an excellent chin, as Espinoza was bouncing some bombs off it.
- After 6 rounds Ringside Expert Steve McCarthy had it 58-56 for Espinoza. The punches landed favored Espinoza 162 to 132.
- Leija looked very tired coming out for round 7. The action went back and forth, with Espinoza rocking the Texan on more than one occasion. To Leija’s credit he continued to fire solid punches at Espinoza and was being rewarded with the right eye (8) of his nemesis now almost ½ closed.
- Leija surprised Espinoza with his aggression in round 9. It was to be his best round of the fight since the bell to start round 1. Espinoza’s right eye (11) was now ½ closed and causing him difficulty seeing punches coming at him. The crowd was still solidly behind Espinoza, but had grown to respect the gritty toughness of the visiting Texan.
- Both fighters were exhausted after round 9. Leija had been fighting on reserve several rounds earlier. Now it was Espinoza’s turn. After 10 rounds Ringside Expert Steve McCarthy had Espinoza well in front 97-93. The punches landed numbers favored Espinoza 258 to 228. Almost all of the Espinoza punches had been power shots!
- Leija came out for round 11 looking to land something big and dramatically swing the momentum in his direction. Espinoza came out looking to knock Leija out. It was Espinoza who landed first and had Leija in desperate trouble. At one point Leija fell into the ropes and had they not been their would have been laying on a ringside table. Somehow the brave Texan survived the round.
- During the rest period the referee and doctor spent time observing Leija who with what little energy he had remaining implored them to not stop the fight. Leija did some excessive holding in round 12 and was able to hear the final bell.
- The scorecard of Ringside Expert Steve McCarthy was 116-112 for Louie Espinoza.
- The official judges had it 117-109, 116-111, and 116-111 all for the winner by unanimous decision ……Louie Espinoza!
Louie Espinoza Wu12 Jesse James (retains WBA title and wins IBF)