NOT content material with terrorizing fringe contenders at each super-bantamweight and featherweight, Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete will this Saturday (February 4) try and proceed his path of destruction up at super-featherweight, the place he’ll meet Australia’s Liam Wilson for the vacant WBO title in Glendale, Arizona.
Navarrete, in fact, is not any stranger to title fights, nor to the WBO. As that organisation’s belt-holder at super-bantamweight and in addition featherweight it was at all times probably he would at some point seamlessly discover his strategy to a title shot in a 3rd weight class earlier than his profession was over.
His featherweight belt, which Navarrete received in 2020 when outpointing Ruben Villa over 12 rounds, was one he defended 3 times, the final of which was a sixth-round stoppage of Eduardo Baez in August. His super-bantamweight belt, in the meantime, was one the 28-year-old picked up when outpointing Isaac Dogboe again in 2018. From there, he beat Dogboe in a rematch, stopping him within the twelfth and last spherical, after which went on to efficiently defend the belt against Francisco De Vaca (TKO 3), Juan Miguel Elorde (TKO 4), Francisco Horta (TKO 4), and Jeo Santisima (TKO 11), all of which served to focus on Navarrete was one of many greatest punchers within the sport.
It’s true, he didn’t seem fairly so damaging as a featherweight, going 12 rounds with Villa and in addition Joet Gonzalez, in addition to being prolonged into the twelfth spherical by Christopher Diaz (at which level Navarette closed the present), however that would have as a lot to do with the higher degree of competitors at 9 stone as Navarrete’s energy not being as impactful.
Chances are, on Saturday we’ll discover out come what may. We will learn the way onerous Navarrete hits as a super-featherweight and we’ll discover out whether or not Liam Wilson is each robust sufficient to take it and adequate to supply a risk of his personal.
So far, the 26-year-old from Queensland is 11-1 (7) as a professional with few indicators on this 12-fight document that recommend he’ll be capable of cease Navarrete’s march. Still, final 12 months was clearly one for Wilson, seeing because it was the 12 months through which he not solely beat Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda over 10 rounds but additionally Joe Noynay (TKO 2), who had stopped Wilson within the fifth around the earlier 12 months.
Now, with a career-best win and a little bit of revenge underneath his belt, there’s arguably no higher time for Wilson to check his abilities against the so-called elite. Yet, even so, it’s nonetheless Navarrete, 36-1 (30), one should again to win this struggle on Saturday, in all probability by stoppage within the center rounds, by which level he can have presumably made a 3rd weight class concern his sudden presence.
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