By Ian S Palmer
WBO Super Featherweight Champion Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico will be putting his title on the line against fellow countryman Oscar Valdez, a former WBC Super Featherweight and WBO Featherweight Champion, this Saturday, August 12th. The 12-rounder from Glendale, Arizona can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN+ while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports Action and those in Canada can see it on TSN 3. Valdez last fought in May when he beat Adam Lopez by 10-round unanimous decision in their rematch. He had lost his Super Featherweight Title by unanimous decision to Shakur Stevenson a year earlier. Navarrete last fought in February when he got up from the canvas in the fourth round to stop Liam Wilson in the ninth for the vacant WBO Belt.
The 28-year-old Navarrete won the WBO World Super Bantamweight title by beating Isaac Dogboe by unanimous decision in December, 2018 then stopped him in the 12th round in their rematch five months later. He then defended it four times with the fifth defence being called a no-contest after he stopped Uriel Lopez in the sixth round because there was no boxing commission present during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Navarette moved up in weight and captured the vacant WBO Featherweight Crown in 2020 with a unanimous decision over Ruben Villa and defended it by stopping Christopher Diaz in the 12th round before decisioning Joet Gonzalez and then stopping Eduardo Baez in six. He then won a title in a third weight division earlier this year with his TKO over Liam Wilson. The recent activity sees Navarrete enters the ring with an official mark of 37-1 with 31 big Ko’s. He owns a current knockout ratio of 81.6 per cent so packs quite a bit of power in his punches and his power doesn’t fade in the later rounds.
Navarette stands 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 72-inch reach, turned pro back in 2012 when he was just 17 years old and has boxed 204 rounds since. Navarrete’s lone defeat came in his sixth pro bout when he came out on the wrong end of a four-round unanimous decision to Daniel Argueta. Navarrete also owns wins over the likes of Dennis Contreras, Luis Orozco and Glenn Porras earlier in his career. Even though Wilson dropped him in their February battle, he’s proven to have a pretty solid chin so far.
The 32-year-old Valdez also owns an impressive mark as he’s 31-1 with 23 Ko’s and has 202 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2012 after a stellar amateur career. He has better-than-average power as well with a current knockout ratio of 71.9 per cent but has gone the distance in six of his last 11 bouts. He measures just over 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 66-inch reach which sees him give up two inches in height and six inches in reach to Navarette.
He’s the only two-time boxing Olympian from Mexico, but failed to win a medal at the 2008 and 2012 Games in Beijing, China and London, England. Valdez did win a dozen medals in other international competitions though and had more than 200 amateur bouts. One of these included a loss to Vasyl Lomachenko and he was also beaten by Robson Conceicao in the gold medal match at the Pan American Games over 12 years ago. Valdez avenged the defeat to Conceicao as a pro when he dealt him a controversial 12-round unanimous decision in September, 2021.
Even though Valdez won the vacant WBO Featherweight Title in 2016 when he stopped Matias Rueda in the second round and defended it six times, he wasn’t facing a steady diet of Grade A boxers until stopping Miguel Berchelt in the 10th round in February, 2021 to win the WBC Super Featherweight Title. However, he has wins over fine competitors such as Scott Quigg, Jason Sanchez, Jayson Velez, Miguel Marriaga, Hiroshige Osawa, Evgeny Gradovich, Chris Avalos, Jose Ramirez, Alberto Garza and Ruben Tamayo. He’s also won the WBO NABO Featherweight, NABF Junior Featherweight, and NABF Junior Super Featherweight Titles as a pro.
Prediction…
It may surprise some fans that Navarrete has a distinct reach advantage over Valdez as well as a couple of inches in height. He’s also got a better knockout ratio as he’s more of a volumepuncher who stops opponents with an accumulation of blows. However, while both boxers have been on the canvas before, I think Valdez has a slightly better chin. Navarrete struggles somewhat against superior boxers and Valdez does own the better skills but Navarette’s power usually pulls him through. Valdez’s shining moment came when he stopped the hard-hitting Miguel Berchelt in a tremendous display and that performance has me believing he can do the same against Navarette. It’s a big assumption though. We’ve got two sluggers going at each other here but this fight could go the distance and that would likely favour Valdez. This is a tough fight to call as Navarette is riding a 32-fight winning streak and hasn’t lost in 11 years. I’ll stick with my first instinct though which was to go with Valdez in a barn-burner of a fight but don’t be surprised by any outcome here.
