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Emanuel Navarrete Gets Off The Deck To Stop Liam Wilson In 9
To Win WBO Junior Lightweight World Title
Photos: Mikey Williams - Top Rank
Emanuel “El Vaquero” Navarrete visited the canvas
tonight, but he got back up to become a three-division
world champion.
Navarrete (37-1, 31 KOs) captured the vacant WBO junior
lightweight world title with a hard-earned ninth-round
technical knockout victory against Liam Wilson (11-2, 7
KOs) Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale,
Arizona.
Navarrete now joins an elite list of Mexican boxers who
have captured titles in three weight classes. That list
includes the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Erik
Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.
In the early rounds, Navarrete controlled the fight by
pushing the action with his awkward style. But in the
fourth round, he was hurt badly by a left hook, which
allowed Wilson to land several more shots and eventually
drop Navarrete. The Mexican warrior was able to recover,
but was hurt once again with a right hook in the sixth.
Navarrete kept his cool and eventually began a vicious
assault to the body, which weakened Wilson in the eighth
round. “El Vaquero” then caught Wilson with a right hand
that sent him down hard. Wilson did his best to survive
the onslaught, but Navarrete’s relentless punching was
too much and forced the ref to call a halt to the fight
at 1:57 of the ninth.
At the time of the stoppage, all three judges had
Navarrete ahead (76-75 and 77-74 2x).
“I’m made of a lot of work, strength, lots of heart, and
the Mexican spirit that never lets me down,” Navarrete
said. “Liam is a warrior. He was able to land a shot
that stunned me a lot. Obviously, we tried to take
things calmly. Fortunately, we were able to recover our
calmness. We went out to recover a bit. We returned to
100%. And we began to engage.
“The satisfaction of winning like this is enormous. I
think that I needed this test in order to be able to say
my career is more complete. Now that I know that I can
hit the canvas and get back up and keep fighting, I’m
more than happy because I know that I can continue
forward.”
“Tonight, I came up a bit short, and I’m disappointed,”
Wilson said. “But I knocked him down in the fourth
round, and I felt that the count was a bit long. We’ll
have to review it and see what people think. He’s a true
champion, though. I thought I won the fight in that
sense because I think it was about a 20-second count.
I’ll review it and see what happens there.
“I want to come back. I’m a true champion. This is my
12th fight, but no excuses. I love to fight, and I love
challenges. I’d fight any other champion any day of the
week. He’s a tough champion. With all due respect to
him, he’s very awkward. But this is boxing, and stuff
happens. All credit to him. I hope he goes on to do
great things. I’ll be back. Make no mistake about it.”
Barboza Topples Pedraza
Arnold Barboza Jr. (28-0, 10 KOs) defended his WBO
Intercontinental junior welterweight title with a
unanimous decision win over former two-division world
champion Jose Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs).
Barboza boxed intelligently from the outside, landing
quick combos that Pedraza had difficulty avoiding. On
his part, Pedraza was able to close the distance on many
occasions, but he often did so without throwing a jab,
so it made it difficult for him to enter without
receiving a lot of punishment.
As the rounds progressed, Pedraza did his best to land
punches to the body, but Barboza would often smother the
Puerto Rican’s offense and use his footwork to evade
more shots.
The later rounds were tough, but Barboza prevailed by
scores of 97-93 and 96-94 2x.
“I was making the fight easy for the first five or six
rounds, but I wanted to stay in there and start
brawling. Pedraza is a tough guy. All training camp we
were working against southpaws, but he did a good job of
switching to southpaw in the middle of the fight. It’s
hard fighting a guy like him with a lot of experience,"
Barboza said. “I think I’ve paid my dues. I want a title
shot. I want Regis Prograis, Alberto Puello, or the
winner of the IBF title or the WBO title. If I can’t get
them, everyone knows who I want: Teofimo Lopez.”
Richard Torrez Jr. Stops James Bryant
Richard Torrez Jr. (5-0, 5 KOs) remained undefeated with
a first-round TKO over James Bryant (6-3, 4 KOs). Torrez
initiated the bout in aggressive fashion, using feints
and head movement to close the distance.
After a few exchanges, Torrez noticed that Bryan would
often crouch forward. The U.S. Olympic silver medalist
then responded by unleashing his left uppercut, which
eventually dropped Bryant before the round ended.
Bryant was able to survive, but his corner advised the
referee to stop the fight before the second round could
commence.
“When you land a punch like that, it almost feels like
there’s no glove there. It just feels like a solid shot
from your knuckle to his head. And that’s when you know
you hurt the guy," Torrez said. “I thought he was in the
recovery state because he had a minute left, but if the
fight were to continue, I would have applied pressure. I
started off the first round a little slower than usual,
but I did that on purpose. I wanted to set my distance
and my jab and feints. And luckily that uppercut landed
and there was more to come.”
In undercard action:
Junior Lightweights: Andres Cortes (19-0, 10 KOs)
outboxed Luis Melendez (17-3, 13 KOs) en route to a
10-round unanimous decision. Both men started the bout
cautiously, but Cortes’ superior ring IQ allowed him to
dominant more and more as the rounds progressed. Scores:
100-90 3x.
Middleweights: Nico Ali Walsh (8-0, 5 KOs) overcame a
hometown disadvantage with a dominant six-round
unanimous decision win over Phoenix’s Eduardo Ayala
(9-3-1, 3 KOs). Walsh scored a knockdown in the second
round, but Ayala, who was backed by a packed crowd of
his supporters, was undeterred and was able to go the
distance. Scores: 60-53 and 59-54 2x.
Ali Walsh said, "He was a big guy, and I wanted to show
that I could muscle him around on the inside. Ayala was
the hometown favorite. That was a new experience for me,
but it was a valuable one."
Junior Welterweights: Lindolfo Delgado (17-0, 13 KOs), a
2016 Mexican Olympian, retained his undefeated record
with a unanimous decision win over Clarence Booth (21-7,
13 KOs) after eight rounds of action. Delgado scored a
knockdown in the final round, courtesy of a hard right
hand. Scores: 80-71 and 79-72 2x.
Lightweights: Emiliano Fernando Vargas (3-0, 2 KOs) went
the distance for the first time in his career by scoring
a four-round unanimous win over southpaw Francisco Duque
(1-2). Scores: 40-36 3x.
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