Emanuel Navarrete to Defend WBO Junior Lightweight Title Against Robson Conceicao

Emanuel Navarrete is going on the defensive…

The 28-year-old Mexican professional boxer will defend the WBO junior lightweight title against Robson Conceicao on November 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Emanuel NavarreteThe fight, which will be Navarrete’s third of 2023, will serve as the chief-support bout to the Shakur StevensonEdwin De Los Santos lightweight title fight.

Navarrete (38-1, 31 KOs) scored the biggest win of his career in August, taking a wide-points victory over former champion Oscar Valdez.

A three-division champion, he also captured titles at 122 and 126 pounds and is ESPN’s No. 1 boxer at 130 pounds.

Conceicao (17-2, 8 KOs) will vie for a world title for a third time. The 34-year-old Brazilian was set to stay busy on Friday night underneath the ESPN main event between Luis Alberto Lopez and Joet Gonzalez.

But with the title fight presented to him earlier this week, Conceicao was a late scratch from his bout with Humberto Galindo.

“I had to three fight three times to become champion,” Conceicao told ESPN’s Mark Kriegel on Friday on the ESPN broadcast. “It’s my time.”

Conceicao’s two losses came in title fights, both under extenuating circumstances. The Olympic gold medalist dropped a disputed decision to Valdez in 2021 after Valdez tested positive for a banned substance.

Conceicao challenged Stevenson for a 130-pound title last year, but Stevenson missed weight before he soundly outpointed Conceicao.

Emanuel Navarrete Defeats Oscar Valdez to Retain WBO Junior Lightweight Title

Emanuel Navarrete is keeping his title…

In an all-out slugfest on ESPN, the 28-year-old Mexican boxer (38-1, 31 KOs) retained his WBO junior lightweight title against Oscar Valdez via unanimous decision by scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 119-109. ESPN scored it 116-112.

Emanuel Navarrete“I feel happy to have been part of this … next great chapter of Mexican boxing history,” Navarrete said through an interpreter. “I am happy and appreciate Oscar for the great fight that we delivered.”

“Thank God I won,” he added. “I appreciate what he did in the ring. He is a Mexican warrior. If people want a rematch, they will demand it.”

Round after round, Navarrete fired punches from awkward angles, rarely setting his feet. He uncorked looping right hands and lefts from uncanny trajectories while in constant motion. He totaled a dizzying 1,038 punches for the fight, more than double the output of Valdez, who threw just 436.

Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) was content to march forward and exchange with Navarrete, a strategy that rarely worked. When he took a step back, he often missed wildly on home run swings. He did, however, connect plenty with his left hook, the same shot that brutally knocked out Miguel Berchelt in 2021 to win the WBC junior lightweight title.

When Valdez drilled Navarrete with the counter left hook in Round 2 and the champion didn’t so much as budge, it was clear trouble was in store for the challenger.

Slowly but surely, Valdez’s right eye closed and turned purple under duress from Navarrete’s punishing, whirlwind attack. Even when Navarrete indicated that his right hand was injured late in the fight, he continued to throw with his power hand.

“It was a small inflammation in my right hand,” Navarrete said. “But the more you hit it, the tougher it gets. But I had to overcome it.”

Navarrete entered the fight rated No. 2 by ESPN at junior lightweight after he defeated Australia’s Liam Wilson to win the vacant title in February. Wilson stepped in six months ago to replace Valdez, who was injured, and almost pulled off the upset. Wilson scored a knockdown in Round 4 of Navarrete’s 130-pound debut, but Navarrete rallied to stop him in Round 9.

On Saturday night, Navarrete scored not just a second victory at 130 pounds but the biggest win of his career.

“He is a warrior,” said Valdez, who lived in Tucson, Arizona, during parts of his childhood. “I tried my best. We gave it our best. He is a warrior. He is a true champion.”

“I’m sorry I disappointed everyone,” Valdez added. “I feel terrible. I wanted to give you all a great fight. I hope you enjoyed the fight. I hope to return strong.”

A two-time Olympian, Valdez, 32, emerged with his face badly bruised and swollen, the product of Navarrete’s thudding shots. Of course, he’s no stranger to fighting through trying circumstances.

In a 2018 featherweight title defense against Scott Quigg, Valdez battled through a broken jaw to win a decision. His jaw was wired shut afterward.

He has been floored multiple times in his career but always bounced back to win outside of his fight last year against pound-for-pound talent Shakur Stevenson. And now, for the second time in three outings, Valdez will look to bounce back.

Navarrete, meanwhile, appears to be improving with each fight and each new weight class. He made his pro debut in 2012 at 112 pounds and won his first title in 2018 when he upset Isaac Dogboe. He then turned back Dogboe in the rematch before notching four more junior featherweight defenses against limited opposition.

At 126 pounds, Navarrete defeated Ruben Villa in 2020 to capture a vacant title and went on to score far more impressive wins against quality opponents, including victories over Joet Gonzalez and Eduardo Baez.

He has defeated the top boxer in ESPN‘s 130-pound ratings and once again was able to overwhelm his foe with not just volume but bruising power.

Navarrete will continue to be in demand, a champion on top of his weight class who consistently delivers action fights — and another in a long line of brave fighters from Mexico.

Luis Alberto Lopez to Defend IBF Featherweight Title vs. Joet Gonzalez

Luis Alberto Lopez is going on the defensive.

The 29-year-old Mexican professional boxer will defend his IBF featherweight title vs. Joet Gonzalez on September 15 in Corpus Christi, Texas, per ESPN.

Luis Alberto Lopez, El VenadoLopez, ESPN‘s top boxer at 126 pounds, will headline a “Top Rank on ESPN” show for the first time in the U.S.

Lopez won the title with a majority-decision victory over Josh Warrington in December and retained the belt with a brutal fifth-round TKO of Michael Conlan in May. Both bouts took place in the U.K.

Lopez (28-2, 16 KOs) has won 11 fights since a 2019 decision defeat to Ruben Villa. Now, Lopez will meet a fellow action fighter in Gonzalez, 29, who fights out of Los Angeles.

Two of Gonzalez’s three defeats came via decision in title challenges (against Emanuel Navarrete and Shakur Stevenson). Gonzalez (26-3, 15 KOs) also dropped a decision to Isaac Dogboe last year.

Robeisy Ramirez to Fight Isaac Dogboe in April in Featherweight Bout

No April Fools’ joke… Robeisy Ramirez is heading back to the ring in April.

The 29-year-old Cuban professional boxer will face Isaac Dogboe in a featherweight bout with title implications on April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to ESPN.

Robeisy RamirezThe Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ main event is expected to be contested for either the vacant WBO featherweight title or the interim belt.

Emanuel Navarrete, the WBO champion at 126 pounds, meets Liam Wilson on February 3 for the WBO’s vacant title at 130 pounds. Navarrete is expected to fight Oscar Valdez in a rescheduled 130-pound bout afterward but could always elect to return to 126.

Ramirez (11-1, 7 KOs) is a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba who broke out in 2022 with three victories, most notably a highlight-reel KO of Abraham Nova in June. He closed the campaign with a ninth-round TKO of Jose Matias Romero in October.

Dogboe (24-2, 15 KOs) is a former 122-pound champion who lost his title to Navarrete via decision in 2018. Navarrete scored a 12th-round TKO in the rematch the following year. Dogboe, 28, from Ghana, moved up to 126 pounds afterward and has won all four of his featherweight fights.

Those wins came over some recognizable names, including Adam Lopez, Christopher Diaz and most recently, Joet Gonzalez.

Dogboe is rated No. 10 by ESPN at featherweight. Ramirez and Dogboe are the top two available contenders in the WBO’s 126-pound ratings.

Emanuel Navarrete Outlasts Joet Gonzalez to Retain WBO Featherweight Title

Emanuel Navarrete is keeping his title…

The 26-year-old Mexican professional boxer successfully defended his WBO featherweight title with a 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 unanimous decision over Joet Gonzalez, it was a constant action bout that could end up being a candidate for fight of the year.

Emanuel Navarrete

Neither fighter went down — although Navarrete (35-1, 29 KO) fell multiple times during the fight due to tripping. Both fighters threw a massive number of punches instead of being more patient in what they tried to land.

“The difference was the conditioning,” Navarrete said through an interpreter after the fight on ESPN. “It was a pretty close fight, but I think the conditioning was the difference.”

Navarrete won the fight, but Gonzalez showed how good of a fighter he can be. The 28-year-old Gonzalez (24-2, 14 KO) did what many other fighters cannot do — seemingly handle Navarrete’s high work rate well. At times, Gonzalez matched Navarrete’s constant flurries of punches with combinations of his own. It helped keep the fight competitive, even as Gonzalez’s face continued to get cut.

“It was a close fight. I thought I had the win,” Gonzalez said. “I hurt him, I believe, in the third or fourth round with a right hand. He buckled. Yeah, I thought I had the fight, man. I honestly did. I thought I had it seven rounds to five, eight rounds to four.

“I was really surprised by that score, 118-110, I believe. But it is what it is, man. I came, and I did my best.”

This, though, was the type of fight Navarrete wanted. After the victory, he said he wants to be in big fights in the future and would be open to a rematch against Gonzalez — a fight Navarrete said he would win again.

Navarrete’s power started to show in the second round, when he first cut Gonzalez with a gash under the right eye that became even bigger in the third round and appeared to reopen multiple times. After the cut was initially created by a left from Navarrete, Gonzalez’s cut man, Mike Bazzel, told ringside reporter Mark Kriegel that he was more concerned about the swelling underneath Gonzalez’s eye — swelling he worked on between almost every round.

“I felt good,” Gonzalez said. “He did catch me with a punch.”

Gonzalez said the swelling didn’t bother him much throughout the remainder of the fight. By the eighth round, Gonzalez’s white trunks had become partially pink and red. But Gonzalez, despite the cuts and the plethora of punches from Navarrete, continued to throw and land combinations, handling whatever hard power punches Navarrete threw.

Despite the champion’s power, Gonzalez rarely appeared in real trouble of being knocked down.

“Without a doubt I hurt him, but every single time he came back,” Navarrete said. “And he hurt me. A couple shots landed, hurt me during the fight.”

Navarrete threw 979 punches during the fight — an average of 81.6 per round. Almost half those punches — 406 of them — were jabs, a career high. He landed 272 punches (27.8%). Gonzalez threw 667 punches in the fight, an average of 55.6 per round, landing 169 (25.3%).

It was a work rate typical of a Navarrete fight, but something difficult to prepare for or truly understand due to the angles he throws punches from and the style he fights with. Gonzalez, in his second attempt at claiming a title, showed he can handle that — even if he didn’t win a belt.

Marlen Esparza to Fight Lucia Nunez in March

Marlen Esparzais ready to rumble…

The 30-year-old Mexican American boxer will box on Golden Boy Promotions’ “Thursday Night Fights” series (DAZN/RingTV.com, 10:00 pm ET) on March 19 at the Avalon in Hollywood, California.

Marlen Esparza

Esparza joins a card that includes Joet Gonzalezand Lamont Roach, all coming off decision losses in world title bouts.

Esparza (7-1, 1 KO), who was a 2012 U.S. Olympicbronze medalist, will face Lucia Nunez(7-10), 29, of Mexico, in a six-round, women’s junior bantamweight bout.

In Esparza’s last fight, on November 2 in Las Vegas on the Canelo AlvarezSergey Kovalevundercard, she lost a ninth-round technical decision because of a bad cut from an accidental head-butt against rival Seniesa Estradafor a vacant interim women’s flyweight title.

“I’m ready to get back in the ring,” Esparza said. “There were multiple factors that made this last fight a real learning experience, but this next round of professional boxing is just the beginning of much more. I’m looking forward to coming out with the new strategies that I’ve been learning and switching up my game a bit.”

Gonzalez (23-1, 14 KOs), 26, of Glendora, California, will square off with former world title challenger Chris Avalos (27-7, 20 KOs), 30, of Lancaster, California, in a 10-round featherweight fight.

Gonzalez will be fighting for the first time since he faced bitter rival Shakur Stevenson for a vacant featherweight world title on October 26 in Reno, Nevada, and lost a near-shutout decision.

“I can’t wait to step back into the ring,” Gonzalez said. “I fought for a world title, so I know what it’s like to be at that level. Now, I’ll be coming back with an even stronger desire to become a world champion. This March 19, I will not disappoint.”

Avalos has lost two fights in a row but has vast experience, including in losses in world title bouts to Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz and to Oscar Valdezin a nontitle bout.

“We’re coming to win,” Avalos said. “We’re back on track. The old Chris Avalos is back. (Gonzalez) may think I’m a joke. You may think I’m washed up. But I’m coming to kick your ass. Keep your hands (up) or you will see what happens.”

Roach (19-1-1, 7 KOs), 24, of Washington, will face Neil John Tabanao(17-7, 11 KOs), 25, of the Philippines, in a 10-round junior lightweight bout in the co-feature.

Roach will be in the ring for the first time since he lost a competitive unanimous decision as the mandatory challenger for 130-pound world titlist Jamel Herringon November 9 in Fresno, California.

“I’ve been itching to get back in that square to show that I’m the best at 130,” Roach said. “My last fight was just a glimpse, but this year it’s all the way up with me.”

Tabanao is coming off three 10-round decision losses in a row, all against undefeated fighters.

“I’m looking forward to this fight against Lamont Roach Jr.,” Tabanao said. “I know that he’s coming off his first loss and that he wants to fight for a world title again. However, I more experience than he, and I know how to score an upset.”