Emanuel Navarrete overwhelmed Oscar Valdez in their rematch on Saturday night.
A sharp, aggressive Navarrete impressed in his return to the 130-pound division, beating 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 within the distance.
Navarette’s left punch struck Valdez’s body, dropping him for the third time with 30 seconds left in the sixth round. Referee Raul Caiz Jr. counted him out at 2:42 of the sixth round.
Mexico’s Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defended the WBO junior lightweight title by forcing the ever-courageous Valdez to submit. Navarrete revived his career after a 12-round loss to Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk in his previous fight, which was held in the 135-pound class, and a 12-round majority draw to Brazilian Robson Conceicao in the 12-round Division of 130 pounds. pound championship fight before Berinchyk defeated him.
Valdez (32-3, 24 KOs) lost by knockout for the first time in his 35-fight, 12-year professional career. The two-time Mexican Olympian’s only losses before Saturday night were twelve-round unanimous points defeats to Navarette in August 2023 and Shakur Stevenson in April 2022.
Valdez, 34, was close to tears as he apologized to fans who had traveled from Mexico to watch the second leg in person.
“We tried to get the win,” Valdez told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “We really wanted it. We trained very hard for this. I want to say that I’m sorry for all the people who came from all over to see me, from Sonora, from Nogales, from Phoenix. …I wish I could have gotten a better result. Thank you for coming here to support us. Maybe next time.”
Valdez twisted his right ankle when he went down after a knockdown in the first round. However, he admitted afterwards that Navarrete was much more the reason for his TKO loss.
“We slipped and fell and somehow damaged my ankle,” Valdez said. “But that’s no excuse. (Navarrete) is a great champion. I take my hat off to him.”
Navarrete admitted on boxrec.com that their second fight wasn’t as easy as it might look historically.
“Look, Oscar Valdez was extremely strong in this fight,” Navarrete said. “And he kept coming forward, so I had to stop him and push him back. Because if you let Valdez come at you downhill, it’s going to be a long night.”
The beginning of the end came Saturday night when another vicious left uppercut from Navarrete sent Valdez into a corner with about 1:20 left in the sixth round. Valdez tried to fight back, but Navarrete hit him with the aforementioned left hand to the body, abruptly stopping the action.
Navarrete’s violent attack continued in the fifth round. The champion caught Valdez with several hard punches throughout those three minutes, punctuated by a devastating left uppercut that sent 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 tried his best to make the rest of the fourth round competitive.
However, just before the bell rang to end the fourth round, Navarrete landed several right hands on a retreating Valdez, who fell to the ground for the second time in their fight.
After suffering a knockdown in the second round, Valdez bravely duel with Navarrete, throwing a flurry of flush punches that helped him temporarily slow Navarrete’s momentum. The bigger, heavier and stronger Navarrete landed a right hand to the temple of a vulnerable Valdez, sending him to his knees with 25 seconds left in the first round. Navarrete looked much more effective early in this rematch than he did during his loss to Berinchyk.
