Emanuel Navarrete insisted there was by no means any doubt he would overcome the worst moments of his eventual title win in a 3rd weight division.
There was some concern from his subsequent potential opponent, nonetheless.
A pre-existing damage pressured Oscar Valdez into the function of ringside observer as he watched ‘El Vaquero’ earn a ninth-round knockout of Australia’s Liam Wilson (11-2, 7KOs) of their ESPN essential occasion Friday night at Desert Diamond Enviornment in Glendale, Arizona. Navarrete suffered the primary knockdown of his profession late in spherical 4, having crushed the rely however was clearly dazed and wanted a lot of the fifth spherical to completely recuperate.
“Loads of blended feelings for me tonight,” Valdez admitted to ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna shortly after he joined Navarrete within the ring. “Clearly, we wished Vaquero to win. We wished the belts to remain in Mexico. Now we are able to make this combat. Hopefully we are able to make it later this yr.”
Navarrete rallied over the ultimate rounds, together with a ninth-round knockdown earlier than he pressured a stoppage at 1:57 of that very same spherical when Wilson was now not in a position to defend himself.
Mexico’s Valdez (30-1, 22KOs) was initially tabbed to face his countryman on this night time, with the vacant WBO junior light-weight title at stake. The identical damage that pressured Valdez to withdraw from a deliberate November 12 ESPN-televised bout from Las Vegas, by no means absolutely healed in time to proceed along with his extremely anticipated showdown with Navarrete (37-1, 30KOs).
As an alternative, the two-time Olympian and former two-division titlist was restricted to a spectator’s view for Friday’s instantaneous traditional. Wilson almost derailed plans to reschedule Navarrete-Valdez, which might happen later this spring or within the second half of the yr ought to each boxers take interim bouts. Navarrete dug deep to assert his third divisional title, which he would proudly defend versus Valdez, a former WBO featherweight and WBC junior light-weight titlist.
“Hopefully we are able to come again to Arizona and make this combat occur,” instructed Valdez. “We would like one other Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales sort combat. I believe our kinds could make that occur. We are able to do it right here in Arizona or wherever on the earth.”
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox