Navarrete looks for ESPN statement win Saturday night
Mexican WBO Super Bantamweight Champ, Emanuel Navarrete, gets set to take the big stage figuratively and literally, in Top Rank Boxing’s ESPN Saturday night main event in the 122 lbs. division.
Navarrete, who has won 22 fights in a row and is 27 – 1, will make the second defense of the title he won in December of last year in a 12-round decision over Isaac Dogboe. He then, successfully defended the title in a rematch against Dogboe with a 12 round TKO in May.
Tonight, Navarrete is not supposed to have much trouble with little known Francisco de Vaca, despite the fighter from Phoenix having a 20 – o record.
We talked on this week’s big fight weekend podcast with lead writer Marquis John’s about this matchup and what is in store for now burrata if he goes on to make the second successful defense of his championship on Saturday night. As Marquis lays out, Navarrete is looking to unify the 122 lbs. belt taking on Daniel Roman perhaps at the end of this year. Roman is set to defend his WBA Championship in September.
Back to Navarrete. He said earlier this week in the pre-fight media build up for this defense against De Vaca that he’s anxious to get this win and then do more:
“The reality is that my life has changed a lot in these last eight months. The fact that I have become world champion and that I have won over a wide margin to Isaac Dogboe, who came from beating Jessie Magdaleno, makes me very happy. I feel very satisfied with the results we have achieved for the hard work we have done in recent months.”
He continued, ““I’ve said it several times already: If the other champions of the division don’t want to accept the challenge of unifying titles, I will be moving up to the featherweight division. If everything goes well on Saturday, maybe I will make another fight in the super bantamweight division, but if I don’t get a unification fight, I would go up to 126 pounds.”
First things first for Navarrete, he must take care of business on Saturday night.
A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!
