Super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete has been boxing’s most busiest titlist of late, defending his WBO belt five times in a nine-month stretch, all via knockout.
After claiming the 122-pound title from Isaac Dogboe in December 2018, Navarrete beat Dogboe again in a rematch in May, followed by win versus Francisco De Vaca in August, Juan Miguel Elorde in September, Francisco Horta in December and Jeo Santisima in February.
The 25-year-old throwback Navarrete (31-1, 27 KOs) is not long for the 122 pound division and is eyeing a debut at featherweight after the coronavirus crisis goes away.
If Zanfer Promotions head Fernando Beltran has it his way, he will pit his Top Rank co-promoted fighter with the pound-for-pound bantamweight slugger Naoya Inoue in a junior featherweight fight.
“Navarrete wants big fights at his weight class. He’s cleaning out the division right now,” Beltran told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “We would love to fight Inoue , if he wants to. If he says he’s ‘The Monster’ then he should fight Navararrette. It’s all about timing. I will put Navararrette in against anybody up to 130 pounds, if they want.
“If Navarrete is not fighting [WBC Rey Vargas or WBA and IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev] to unify, it’s because they are not stepping in with him — not because Navarrete doesn’t want to. We know, and everyone else knows, that Navarrete is the best 122 pounder. I will put Navararrette in against anybody up to 130 pounds, if they want.”
The 27-year-old Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) has expressed immediate plans to jump up in weight. The WBA and IBF titlist has been fighting as a bantamweight since May 2018, and was set to fight WBO titlist John Riel Casimero on April 25 in Las Vegas, but that fight was scrapped as well due to the pandemic.
Navarrete would sport a two-inch reach advantage and 4 ½ inch reach advantage if they were to ever meet.
Beltran believes it will be a much-welcomed gift to fight-starved fans.
“Fans haven’t had boxing, they deserve it,” he said.
“If we get through this [pandemic] quickly, and there is interest from the Inoue, I believe it will be easier to make a fight with him than with any other fighter at 122,” Navarrete said in a statement released through Top Rank. “The truth is that I’m seriously thinking of moving up to 126, and the only thing that could keep me at 122 would be a big fight against Inoue or a possible unification against one of the champions. That is the reality of why I would stay around at 122. If it’s not that way, I will move up to 126.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist and member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011. He has written for the likes of the LA Times, Guardian, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Men’s Health and NFL.com and currently does TV commentary for combat sports programming that airs on Fox Sports and hosts his own radio show in Los Angeles. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com.