By Dan Ambrose: Emanuel Navarrete (31-1, 27 KOs) and Jessie Magdaleno (28-1, 18 KOs) will be battling for the vacant WBO featherweight title on September 19 or 26. ESPN is reporting these two fighters will be fighting next month for the recently vacated World Boxing Organization 126-lb title.
Former WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson recently vacated his 126lb title to go up to 130 to chase the belt-holders in that weight class.
Fans would have liked to have seen Shakur stay around at 126 long enough to defend his WBO belt against former WBO 122lb champion Navarrete, but that wasn’t of interest to him.
Stevenson, 22, has bigger fish to fray at 130 against the likes of Miguel Berchelt, Jamel herring, Joseph Diaz, and Oscar Valdez.
Navarette looking hard to beat
The 25-year-old ‘Vaquero’ Emanuel Navarrete captured the WBO super bantamweight title in December 2018 in beating the talented punching machine Isaac Dogboe by a 12 round unanimous decision in a thrilling fight.
The two met five months later in May 2019 with Navarrete wearing down Dogboe and stopping him in the 12th round.
Navarrete knocked Dogboe down in rounds six and twelve. In the 12th, Dogboe’s corner threw in the towel to save their fighter when Navarrete was battering him.
The victory over Dogboe led to Navarrete making an additional four successful defenses of his WBO 122-pound title before he decides to give it up due to his problems making weight. Last July, Navarrete vacated the WBO title after stopping Uriel Lopez by a sixth-round knockout last June.
Taking advantage of the WBO’s rules that allows former champions to be given a #1 ranking in the divisions above them, Navarrete was subsequently ranked #1 at 126 for the vacant title given by Shakur.
The move pushed Navarrete ahead of the previous #1 Michael Conlan, who then opted to move down to 122 rather than face him for the vacant WBO 126lb title.
Former WBO super bantamweight champion Magdaleno is now ranked #2 with the sanctioning body at 126, and he’ll be the one that will battle the tough Navarrete for the strap.
Navarette and Magdaleno share a common opponent
Magdaleno and Navarrete share a familiar opponent in Issac Dogboe. In April 2018, Dogboe stopped Magdaleno in the 11th round. Magdaleno started well, dropping Dogboe in the first round and getting the better of him through the first four.
Dogboe came on in the fifth to drop Magdaleno, and it was all downhill for him from that point on. You can argue that the reason for Magdaleno’s loss to Dogboe is the struggles that he’s had in making the 122lb weight limit.
Super bantamweight was a weight class that Magdaleno was able to make relatively quickly earlier in his career, but by 2018, it had become difficult for him.
Magdaleno has come from the defeat by Dogboe by winning his last three fights in beating Yenifel Vicente, Rico Ramos, and Rafael Rivera.