Bruce Carrington fears Rafael Espinoza is unwilling to “risk” fighting him.

The 28-year-old Carrington was present at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena to watch Espinoza impress throughout the course of defending his WBO featherweight title against Edward Vazquez on the undercard of Naoya Inoue’s stoppage of Ramon Cardenas.

It is with the WBO and at 126lbs that Carrington is the number-one contender, and in an increasingly competitive weight division he wants to challenge for a title in his next fight.

Suggestions persist that England’s Nick Ball, the WBA champion, is on course to fight Inoue in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The IBF champion Angelo Leo defends his title on May 25 against Tomoki Kameda of Japan, and the WBC champion Stephen Fulton Jnr is expected to move up to challenge O’Shaquie Foster, who holds the WBC title at 130lbs.

That Carrington and Espinoza are both promoted by Top Rank similarly suggests that of those four the Mexican represents his likeliest opponent, and yet Espinoza is another who is targeting Inoue – who is co-promoted by Top Rank – and Carrington told BoxingScene: “I’m ranked number one with the WBO. I want to have that fight next. I want to fight him; I want to fight Nick Ball; I want to fight Angelo Leo; I want to fight whoever’s in the way of the WBC. Whoever. I just want to fight these guys.

“But yes, Espinoza, I’d love to fight him – our styles is electric. He’s one of those guys who just loves to fight. He’s Mexican; he brings that Mexican pride. He just wants to bang. I’m the type of guy who’d love to mix and match with a style like Espinoza’s, for sure.

“He put on an impressive performance against Vazquez.

“My team has talked to his team and they’ve showed no interest to fight me. They don’t want to risk fighting a guy like me before they start unifying. That’s what all of the champions are doing right now. I have to play the waiting game, I guess. But I couldn’t care less about what they have to do – I really want my shot.”

Espinoza, 31, spoke before he stopped Vazquez in seven rounds of his hopes to one day fight Inoue, who is expected to move to featherweight in the coming months. That he is 6ft 1ins regardless means that his time at featherweight is limited; the ideal outcome for the promising Carrington, as for so many from 118lbs to 126lbs – is for him to ultimately fight Inoue when the Japanese icon moves up.

“[The performance against Cardenas] was really impressive,” he said. “Inoue, again, granted this is the second time he’s been knocked down, but it’s also the second time he’s gotten back up and finished a guy. That’s what champions do.

“It was very impressive. Very impressive from Inoue. Cardenas, he was definitely a tougher opponent than Inoue expected. I already knew Cardenas had power coming into this fight. I’ve done my own film study on just watching Cardenas, and I already knew he had some power, but I didn’t think he could match well with Inoue’s style. That kinda showed; if he landed a big shot he could put Inoue in trouble, and that’s what happened. But Inoue’s a champion – he made adjustments.

“He’s the best fighter in the division. I can’t say he’s the best fighter in the world. As of right now, Terence Crawford is the best fighter in the world. But when it comes to Inoue, he’s definitely in conversations to be top three, top four, top five best in the world right now.

“Maybe [he’s declining]. Maybe. This fight with [when he was knocked down by Luis] Nery, and then this fight now – they’re not too far apart in terms of date and everything like that. Maybe he has a lot of fights; a lot of experience; it could be he’s past his peak. But he’s still looking good. 

“If he continues to keep having fights out here [in the US], and putting on performances like that, more people will get to know him and learn him and understand, ‘Oh, he’s been like this; he’s been this type of guy’. He just needs to continue making a mark out here in America; he’ll become a much bigger star, for sure. 

“He’s always thoroughly disciplined in terms of his form. Every one of his shots always comes out powerful throughout the fight because he has such great form; great balance; he’s always ready to throw a shot. More so, it’s his discipline to not get caught with the same shot again. That’s probably the most important thing that I can take away from his win. If he wasn’t that disciplined he’d probably have got caught again, because Cardenas was throwing them hail Marys the whole night. He was just hoping that Inoue would have a lapse of judgement or have a lapse where he’s, ‘Oh, he’s sleeping – let me catch him’, and that shows a lot of maturity. 

“I can’t really say how soon [a fight with Inoue] could happen. With him getting dropped, in his last fight, he’s probably not intrigued to go up in weight. [So] right now I’m focused on the featherweight champions.

“I think [him fighting in the US brings a fight between us closer] – at the end of his career I see him fighting at 126. But, man, I want it to happen a little sooner. I would love it to happen sooner and for me to have the opportunity to fight him.”