Miguel Angel Espino (born February 16, 1980) is a professional American

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

Personal life

Espino, a

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

, was born in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

. Espino is from the "hood", and sees boxing as an escape from this - looking to the day when he can present his family the keys to a new house. His mother is legally blind, and has a younger sister who is seeking a BA in psychology. Espino is by nature a polite and quiet character, as well as a bit of a

foodie A foodie is a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food, and who eats food not only out of hunger but also as a hobby. The related terms "gastronome" and "gourmet" define roughly the same thing, i.e. a person who enjoys food for pleasur ...

. In 2011, he married his sweetheart, Ana, with whom he has a daughter, Abigail Angel Espino.

Boxing career

He was placed on the 'West Coast Team' in

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show '' The Contender'', and was matched against

Peter Manfredo Peter Manfredo Jr. (born November 26, 1980) is an American former professional boxer and former IBO middleweight champion. He has challenged twice for upper-level world titles, at middleweight and super middleweight, as well as having won the N ...

, the high-ranked boxer who had been reinstated into the show by popular vote amongst the contestants. He was unlucky to lose, the three judges giving Manfredo 144 points and Espino 141 - the maximum for the five round fight being 150. On losing, he was hugely upset at missing his opportunity to lift his family out of their "plight". However, he won his next fight on the Contender rematch undercard, stopping Jonathan Reid in the fifth round out of five, and proceeded from there to go on an eleven fight winning streak from 2005 to 2009. He was able to win the WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation Middleweight title during this time, and established himself as a nice action fight on Telefutura boxing cards. This resulted in him getting a shot at WBC/WBO Middleweight champion

Kelly Pavlik Kelly Robert Pavlik (born April 5, 1982) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2012. He won the unified WBC, WBO, ''Ring'' magazine and lineal middleweight titles by defeating Jermain Taylor in 2007, and made thr ...

Middleweight title shot

Espino fought Kelly Pavlik on December 19, 2009, at the

Beeghly Center The Beeghly Physical Education Center, or simply Beeghly Center, is a 6,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Youngstown, Ohio. The arena, built at a cost of $5.5 million and named for local businessman Leon A. Beeghly, opened on December 2, 1972. It ...

on the campus of

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergrad ...

for the WBC,

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

and

Ring Magazine ''The Ring'' (often called ''The Ring'' magazine or ''Ring'' magazine) is an American boxing magazine that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy of professional wrestling came more into questio ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

titles. Miguel lost by way of fifth-round knockout after giving a spirited effort in which he went inside and traded with the champion, but while both guys landed a lot on each other, the power difference was clearly in Pavlik's favor, as he dropped Espino a lot prior to the stoppage.

''The Fighter''

Miguel Espino appeared on ''

The Fighter ''The Fighter'' is a 2010 American Biographical film, biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of profes ...

'' as Alfonso Sanchez who appears during the climax of the movie.

References

External links

NBC Profile
* 1980 births American boxers of Mexican descent Boxers from Los Angeles The Contender (TV series) participants Living people People from North Hollywood, Los Angeles American male boxers Middleweight boxers {{US-boxing-bio-stub