Navarrete retains title with technical decision over Suarez
Emanuel Navarrete retained his WBO junior lightweight title with an eighth-round technical decision victory over Charly Suarez on Saturday at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California.
The fight was stopped before the start of Round 8 with Navarrete unable to continue after suffering a cut over the left eye from an accidental clash of heads. The fight went to the scorecards, with all three judges giving Navarrete the edge: 76-75, 77-76 and 77-76.
Navarrete dominated the early rounds with his usual output, outlanding Suarez in four of the first five rounds. In the first, Navarrete landed a straight right that drew blood from Suarez’s nose. It was a back-and-forth fight after that, with Navarrete landing his combinations and his trademark uppercut, and Suarez trying to cut the distance to land his left hand.
But an accidental head clash at the start of Round 6 opened a big cut over Navarrete’s left eye. The cut seemed to come from a punch, but Jack Reiss, a former referee who now works as a commissioner with the California State Athletic Commission, reviewed the action and stayed with the call in the ring.
“I felt good. I felt strong. I felt complete,” Navarrete, who needed extra time to make weight on Friday, said after the fight. “Unfortunately, what happened with the headbutt, obviously [the fight] ended like that. But while we were fighting, I felt good.”
Navarrete seemed to have trouble seeing from the left eye the rest of the round, with blood flowing all over his face. Suarez took advantage, landing a few right hands that Navarrete didn’t seem to see coming. Navarrete’s corner did a good job with the cut, but before the start of Round 8, referee Edward Collantes put an end to the action following the advice of the ring doctor.
“From the first moment of the impact, I knew it was a headbutt, Navarrete said. “It split my eyebrow completely, and from the first moment I noticed it was a headbutt.”
Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) has won titles at junior featherweight, featherweight, and junior lightweight. He won the 130-pound WBO belt with a ninth-round TKO over Liam Wilson in February 2023. Navarrete made three defenses of the belt before moving up to lightweight, where he lost a split decision to Denys Berinchyk challenging for the WBO belt. Navarrete returned to junior lightweight and demolished Oscar Valdez in a sixth-round KO in December. The fight was a rematch of Navarrete’s unanimous decision win over Valdez in August 2013.
With Navarrete’s issues making weight, there’s a chance he can move back up to the lightweight division for his next fight.
“First we’re going to recover the cut that we have in the eyebrow,” Navarrete said. “We just need to adjust a few things, but obviously we’re going to first take things calmly, make a decision, and see if we want to stay at 130 or try again at 135 pounds.”
Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs), who represented the Philippines in the 2016 Olympic games in Rio, turned professional at age 30. He earned this title shot — the first of his pro career — by stopping Jorge Castaneda in three rounds in September.
In the co-main event, Raymond Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) defeated Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) to win the vacant IBF interim lightweight title by scores of 118-110, 119-109 and 119-109.
Muratalla was very active, landing punches in double digits in 10 of the 12 rounds. He outlanded Abdullaev in power punches 82 to 36 — 25 to 10 to the body.
“It feels great to finally have this [belt] around my waist,” Muratalla said after the fight. “[Abdullaev] was a tough fighter. He came to fight. We knew that. I was just using my skills, just picked him apart and beat him every round.”
Vasiliy Lomachenko, the IBF titleholder, is recovering from a back injury and has until October to decide if he wants to continue boxing and keep the belt. Muratalla welcomed the challenge and said that’s the only thing he’s focusing on now as the mandatory challenger.
“Absolutely,” Muratalla said of the possibility of facing Lomachenko. “I’m the mandatory for him, so that’s what we’re looking forward to. It’ll be an honor to fight him to have his name in my resume, and I’m looking forward to that.”
Source: espn.com