By Chris Williams: The question fans have about tonight’s fight on ESPN is WHY is Emanuel Navarrete (31-1, 27 KOs) fighting a guy with a 13-13 record in the headliner spot on ESPN in his match against journeyman Uriel Lopez (13-13-1, 6 KOs) in a non-title fight? This is a match that would be better off tucked down on an undercard somewhere, but it’s not main-event material. That’s the problem.
On the scales last Friday, Navarrete looked soft in the belly, carrying visible fat on his midsection in weighing in at 127 pounds. That’s not surprising because Navarrete weighed in five pounds heavier than he normally does when competing at 122. The extra weight that Navarrete weighed in at appears to be fat instead of muscle.
Imagine a fight between heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua a fighter with a 13-13 record being televised as the main event. The fans would be furious and go after Joshua, his promoter at the network for putting on such a terrible mismatch.
Navarrete vs. Lopez card starts at 11:00 PM. ET
There’s no way that the World Boxing Organization would have sanctioned the Navarrete vs. Lopez fight for the 122-lb title due to Uriel being a non-ranked fighter.
Navarrete and Lopez are fighting tonight at the Gimnasio TV Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico. The match will be aired on ESPN at 11 pm ET/9 pm PT. This is a 10-round bout at featherweight.
The one positive about the Navarrete fight is the late time that it’ll be televised on the East Coast of the U.S. With it being on at 11:00 p.m, a lot of boxing fans won’t see it. As the saying goes, ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
Televising the Navarrete vs. Uriel fight late at night means that it won’t be seen by as many boxing fans, so it might not be as big a deal as it otherwise would be for this mismatch to be shown on ESPN.
Navarrete-Lopez is an off-putting fight and strengthens the argument that many boxing fans have about Navarrete being selectively matched against bottom-feeders to make him look better than he actually is.
Uriel Lopez not expected to last long
Top Rank would have found a better opponent for the 25-year-old Navarrete to face the Lopez, as this has early knockout written all over it. Lopez rides into tonight’s clash with a nice three-fight LOSING streak against less than the best opposition.
If Lopez is still fighting at four rounds tonight, that’ll be a major miracle. It means that Navarrete is probably carrying him to give the fans something to see instead of wiping out his over-matched opponent right away.
The fans wouldn’t mind seeing Navarrete score a quick knockout if it were a competitive fight on paper against a highly rated contender, who at least had a chance of winning. That’s not the case for tonight’s Navarrete-Lopez match.
When you pick someone like Lopez for Navarrete to face, it sends a message that you’re not even trying to get someone that has a halfway decent chance of getting the victory.
Navarrete has been busy since 2018
As the WBO 122-pound champion, Navarette has done an excellent job of staying busy, defending his title five times since winning it in 2018 in beating Isaac Dogboe.
Boxing fans love seeing a champion like Navarette fighting frequently, but where they have an issue is with the opposition that he’s been facing. Instead of striving to face the best in competitive fights, Navarette has been put in with a lot of fighters that had no business competing for a world title.
The fans wouldn’t mind Navarrete fighting less frequently if he were fighting quality opponents instead of the no-name guys that he’s been facing. When you’re continually matched with stiffs, it doesn’t register with fans. For example, if you were to ask the average fan to pick the name of Navarrete’s opponent from a multiple choice quiz, they probably wouldn’t be able to do it. BUT, if Navarrete were facing guys like Naoya Inoue, Rey Vargas or Shakur Stevenson, it would be a different story.
Undercard fights on Navarrete vs Lopez card:
- Carlos Ornelas vs. Edwin Palomares
- Sergio Chirino Sanchez vs. Gustavo Alan Pina
- Ivan Armando Garcia vs. Roberto Palomares
These aren’t big names, unfortunately, and that’s too bad because it would have been nice for fans to see a few top fighters.
Navarette’s five title defenses:
- Issac Dogboe – excellent opponent
- Francisco De Vaca
- Juan Miguel Edorde
- Francisco Horda
- Jeo Santisima
Navarrete moving up to 126 in 2021
Emanuel Navarrete will be spending the remainder of 2020 at super bantamweight [122-pounds], but then next year he wants to move up to featherweight. It’s unclear why Navarrete is waiting until 2021 to make the move up to 126. It’s likely due to the current WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson not having given up his title yet.
If Navarrete moved up to 126 in 2020, he would be in the crosshairs of Stevenson, and that’s a fight that he can’t win in this writer’s view.
Stevenson is on another level than Navarrete, and he would give him a boxing lesson if the two fought right now. However, it’s unlikely that Top Rank, the promoters for Stevenson and Navarrete, would even consider making that fight.
It would be a good move for Navarrete to move up to featherweight now after his fight tonight against Lopez.
Unless Top Rank is going to match Navarrete against someone good in his next fight at 122, then he should move up to 126 and go after WBC champion Gary Russell Jr. or IBF champ Josh Warrington. Those are respectable names, and they would give the fans a chance to see whether Navarrete is going to pan out in the 126-lb weight class. If Navarrete can’t hang in with those guys, then he needs to go on a diet and go back down to 122.
Staying at 122 safer for Emanuel right now
By matching Navarrete against Shakur, Top Rank would be losing one of their revenue streams. Unless the fight turned out to be a draw, one of these guys would see their popularity plummet with a loss.
“We are thinking about maybe fighting this year at 122, then in 2021, going to 126,” said Navarrete to ESPN.com. “As each fight passes, I feel that it’s getting more and more difficult for me to make 122 because I’m still developing and growing physically. It’s becoming more difficult to make the weight. My body is asking me to move up.”
See what I mean when I say that Navarrete is starting to have problems making the 122-pound limit.
It’s got to be tough for Navarrete to keep making the 122-pound limit at this point in his career, as he looks like a 140-pounder after he rehydrates. The size advantage is one of the main reasons why Navarrete does so well against his smaller opponents.
Having a size advantage helps Navarrete
When you look at it, Navarrete is like light-welterweight fighting in the super-bantamweight division. Navarrete has been able to get away with cutting weight to compete in a division below his body size, but now that he’s getting older, he’s running into problems.
It’s too bad that Navarrete is moving up to 126 before he’s fought any of the interesting matches at 122. There are at least SIX big fights available to Navarrete if he stayed at bantamweight. The question is, why hasn’t Top Rank put Navarrete against any of the quality opposition at 122 or 118 since he captured the WBO title in 2018?
Top Rank SHOULD be looking at keeping Navarrete at 122 long enough for him to fight these guys:
- Murodjon Akhmadaliev
- Rey Vargas
- Naoya Inoue
- Nonito Donaire
- John Riel Casimero
- Guillermo Rigondeaux
Some of those guys fight at 118, and I’m not sure that Navarrete’s Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would let him fight. Rigondeaux already beat one of Arum’s fighters in Donaire years ago, and Arum probably wouldn’t chance it letting the talented Cuban anywhere near Navarrete.
A fight against Inoue is one that Navarrete would like, but it’s not going to happen in 2020. Inoue will be facing WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero soon, and
Chris Williams’ prediction:
Navarrete blasts out the hapless Uriel Lopez in the first round tonight, leaving a lot of boxing fans hopping mad at seeing such a poor mismatch.
The ONLY way Lopez wins this match is if Navarrete suffers an injury that causes him to bow out of the fight, but it would have to be a bad one. Even with an injured limb, Navarrete beats Lopez with flying colors.
