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Emanuel Navarrete overwhelmed Oscar Valdez during Saturday night’s rematch.
An accurate and aggressive Navarrete impressed in his return to the 130-pound division by pounding Valdez to the head and body in the main event of a 10-fight card at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. Navarrete dropped Valdez in the first, fourth and sixth rounds and became the first opponent to stop the former two-division champion inside the distance.
Navarette’s left to the body of Valdez dropped him for the third time with 30 seconds on the clock in the sixth round. Referee Raul Caiz Jr. he counted him out at 2:42 of the sixth round.
Mexico’s Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) retained the WBO junior lightweight title by pounding the ever-brave Valdez into submission. Navarrete bounced back from a 12-round loss to Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk in his previous fight, which was contested in the 135-pound division, and a 12-round majority draw with Brazil’s Robson Conceicao in 12 rounds, 130-pound championship bout before Berinchyk won it.
Valdez (32-3, 24 KOs) lost by knockout for the first time in his 12-year, 35-fight professional career. The two-time Mexican Olympian’s only losses before Saturday night were 12-point unanimous decision losses to Navarette in August 2023 and Shakur Stevenson in April 2022.
Valdez, 34, was close to tears as she apologized to fans who traveled from Mexico to see her rematch in person.
“We tried to get the win,” Valdez told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “We really enjoyed it. We trained very hard for this. I mean I feel sorry for all these people who came here to see me from all over, from Sonora, from Nogales, from Phoenix. … I wish I could have gotten a better result. Thanks for coming here to support. Maybe next time.”
Valdez sprained his right ankle when he went down from a first-round takedown. Afterwards, however, he admitted that Navarrete was much more the reason for his TKO loss.
“We slipped and fell and messed up my ankle,” Valdez said. “But that’s no excuse. (Navarrete) is a great champion. Hats off to him.”
Navarrete acknowledged that his second fight wasn’t as easy as it might historically appear to boxrec.com.
“Look, Oscar Valdez was very strong in this fight,” Navarrete said. “And he kept going, so what he had to do was stop him in his tracks and push him back. Because if you let Valdez come at you, coming down, then it’s going to be a long night.”
The beginning of the end came Saturday night when another left uppercut from Navarrete dropped Valdez on the ropes with about 1:20 left in the sixth round. Valdez tried to fight back, but Navarrete nailed him with the aforementioned left to the body that brought the action to an abrupt halt.
Navarrete’s violent onslaught continued throughout the fifth round. The champion caught Valdez with several punishing punches in those three minutes, punctuated by a crushing left uppercut that dropped Valdez’s mouthpiece to the canvas with just seconds left in the fifth round.
A left hook from Navarrete knocked Valdez off balance and into a corner with just over 1:40 left in the fourth round. Valdez steadied himself before going down and did his best to make the rest of the fourth round competitive.
However, just before the bell rang to end the fourth round, Navarrete landed multiple right hands on a retreating Valdez, who fell to the canvas for the second time in their bout.
After suffering a fall during the second round, Valdez bravely faced Navarrete and connected with his fair amount of jabs that helped him temporarily halt Navarrete’s momentum. The taller, heavier and stronger Navarrete landed a right hand to the temple of a vulnerable Valdez that dropped him to his gloves and knees with 25 seconds left in the first round. Navarrete looked much more effective as soon as this rematch started than he did during his loss to Berinchyk.
