Oscar Valdez (31-1, 23 KOs) and Emanuel Navarette (37-0, 31 KOs) have a highly anticipated bout on the horizon.The fight is scheduled for August 12th, at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Navarrete and Valdez aspire to inscribe their names in the esteemed history of great Mexican rivalries, alongside renowned matchups such as Ruben Olivares-Chucho Castillo, Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales, and Rafael Marquez-Israel Vazquez, among others.
Hailing from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Mexico, Emanuel “El Vaquero” Navarette secured his inaugural world championship in December 2018, by triumphing over Isaac Dogboe and claiming the WBO junior featherweight title. Having successfully defended his title five times, he decided to move up to featherweight. He captured the vacant WBO featherweight championship in October 2020 in a fight against Ruben Villa. Defending his belt against Christopher Diaz, Joet Gonzalez, and Eduardo Baez, the 28-year-old champion demonstrated his skills before moving up to the 130-pound weight class.
Navarrete joined Morales, Barrera, and Julio Cesar Chavez as Mexican three-division champions in February. By knocking out Liam Wilson in the ninth round, he won the WBO junior lightweight world title.
Navarette stated, “After so much time, this fight will finally take place. Obviously, I am 100 percent motivated because Valdez is still a big threat, and a fight against him could possibly be the start of a new Mexico vs. Mexico rivalry like the one between Barrera and Morales."
Valdez’s skills as an amateur boxer were showcased at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics when he represented Mexico. As a professional boxer, he won the WBO featherweight world title in 2016 after defeating Matias Rueda and defended it six times. After moving up to the junior lightweight division, he secured victories over Adam Lopez in 2019 and Jayson Velez in 2020. Nonetheless, his biggest challenge was facing Miguel Berchelt in February 2021 for the WBC title. The counterpunching expertise Valdez possessed helped him deliver three crushing knockdowns despite height, reach, and power disadvantages. It took a resounding knockout in the 10th round to secure his victory.
Valdez is not without controversy, with a highly controversial bout against Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceição, who filed a complaint with the World Boxing Council after Valdez was allowed to fight and retain his title, despite testing positive for Phentermine, a banned substance. His only loss of his career has come at the hands of Shakur Stevenson, who defeated him in a unification match in April 2022. Making a remarkable comeback, Valdez avenged his previous loss by defeating Lopez in a rematch, which took place last month as the co-feature to the Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko super fight. With this victory, Valdez sets his sights on matching Navarrete's achievement as a three-time world champion.
There is no doubt that these two Mexican warriors are going to give us a great showdown. Both fighters have been training relentlessly for this opportunity, because they know what this victory could mean for their careers. Styles make fights, and with both boxer’s styles meshing well, this bout certainly has potential to be fight of the year.
