Navarrete vs. Valdez Preview
The WBO junior lightweight title will be on the line Saturday August 12th in Glendale, Arizona at the Desert Diamond Arena. Champion Emanual Navarrete will be defending the title for the first time against former two-time champion Oscar Valdez.
The two were originally scheduled to fight for the vacant belt in February but Valdez was forced to pull out of the fight in December. He was replaced by Liam Wilson on short notice. Wilson fought a brilliant fight for the first five rounds against Navarrete, scoring a knockdown in the fourth round. But Navarrete came on strong in the eighth and ninth rounds winning by TKO to become champion in one of the best comebacks of the last five years.
The victory over Wilson made 28-year-old Navarrete a three-weight world champion, having also held the WBO featherweight and junior featherweight titles. Navarrete is excited to get the biggest win of his career over a fellow Mexican fighter. “Personally, I would feel complete. What is missing in my career is a victory against a rival like Valdez,” said Navarrete. “It would fill me with pride to be able to carry out such an iconic fight between Mexicans and win.”
He commented on the type of fight Valdez will bring to the ring, “I know that talking about me is talking about a lot of blows and an attractive fight. Now, with Valdez, it will be twice as spectacular. It’s going to be twice as attractive. Valdez is a fighter who has no reverse.
“We always see him going forward, throwing blows. This time, he says he’s going to blow my head off. Well, we’ll see, right? Good, all good. Very fast.”
Many pundits believe Valdez represents the biggest challenge of Navarrete’s career. To this point he has key victories over Joet Gonzalez, Christopher Diaz, Ruben Villa, Juan Miguel Elorde, and Isaac Dogboe.
Valdez is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Adam Lopez in May. Prior to that he suffered the first loss of his career in 2022 for the WBC and WBO super featherweight titles to Shakur Stevenson. He also held the WBO featherweight title from 2016 to 2019.
The 31-year-old is ready to prove that he deserves to be champion once again. “This is my chance to come back from my loss to Shakur Stevenson, when I lost my title and my undefeated record,” Valdez said. “It’s something very personal that I have. I want to come back and make a statement.
“I want to show that losing your undefeated record it doesn’t mean the end of your career.”
The Mexican fighter has a clear mindset heading into what he believes can be a career defining fight. “I always visualize myself as the best,” insisted Valdez. “It’s not that I’m arrogant and think that I’m better than anyone else. The reason I think like that is because I know the work I put in during training. I can’t train the way I do, waking up early and running the mountains the way I do, staying on my diet.
“I train the way I train to tell myself that I’m number one. I would never train this way just to tell myself that I’m the second best. I will always train this way to win and make a statement that I am the best at 130 pounds.”
Valdez has key victories in his career over Robson Conceição, Miguel Berchelt, Jayson Velez and Scott Quigg. A win for either fighter on Saturday will help define a legacy as one of the greatest Mexican champions of all-time.
