GLENDALE, Arizona – WBO junior lightweight titleholder Emanuel Navarrete experienced passport issues before leaving Mexico, delaying his arrival here for his Saturday night unification against Mexican countryman and IBF belt holder Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez, BoxingScene confirmed Thursday.
Navarrete, 39-2-1 (32 KOs), missed Thursday’s news conference due to the troubles, which forced the session to be postponed to 6:30 p.m.
Navarrete was originally due to arrive at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport around 7 p.m. Wednesday, and then greet fans.
The Boxing Hour’s Norm Frauenheim first reported the clearance issues delaying Navarrete, whose rescheduled flight is due in at 8 p.m. Mountain time Thursday, two officials said.
The weigh-in is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
