Charly Suarez keeps leverage by staying in 130lbs title-rematch position

Charly Suarez’s yearning for the WBO junior-lightweight belt is fierce.

Much of that is rooted in the belief of the WBO No. 1-ranked contender that he won the May 2025 bout against current unified champion Emanuel Navarrete when a video replay system failed to show quickly enough that Suarez had cut Navarrete with a punch.

The referee’s ruling that an accidental headbutt caused the cut sent the bout to the scorecards, and a thin victory by Navarrete was later changed to a no-contest by the California State Athletic Commission, with a rematch ordered.

Fighting for the first time since that San Diego bout, Suarez, 18-0 (10 KOs), returns to the ring Saturday night versus Manuel Avila, 26-2-1 (9 KOs), in the co-main event of Saturday night’s ProBoxTV card at the Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California, a bout for a minor WBO belt that will keep him positioned for a shot at Navarrete.

More than that, Suarez recently declined another bout that would have represented his richest purse yet, telling his promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, that he prioritizes the 130lbs championship belt over purse money.

In Avila, Suarez meets a 34-year-old who has taken two three-year sabbaticals from the ring since 2019.

Victory will keep Suarez positioned for that rematch with unified WBO/WBA champion Navarrete, although the expectation is that the WBO will permit Navarrete to stage a unification bout against WBC champion and fellow Top Rank fighter O’Shaquie Foster if those sides successfully conclude ongoing negotiations.

BoxingScene reported previously that former three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko is targeting Suarez for his return bout, and now that Navarrete and Foster are in talks, a Suarez-Lomachenko winner would be fighting the Navarrete-Foster winner for three belts.