Emanuel Navarrete successfully defended his WBO junior lightweight championship, defeating Charly Suarez by technical decision in the eighth round on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
The fight concluded prematurely at just one second into the eighth round. Navarrete was deemed unable to continue due to a significant cut above his left eye, which resulted from an accidental clash of heads. According to the rules, the fight then went to the judges` scorecards for a technical decision. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Navarrete: 76-75, 77-76, and 77-76.
Navarrete dictated the pace in the initial rounds with his characteristic high punch output, outlanding Suarez in four of the first five rounds. Early in the first round, Navarrete landed a straight right hand that caused Suarez`s nose to bleed. The contest became a competitive back-and-forth battle, with Navarrete connecting his combinations and renowned uppercut, while Suarez worked to close the distance and land his left hand effectively.
An accidental headbutt occurring at the outset of the sixth round opened a deep cut above Navarrete`s left eye. While some initially thought it might have been caused by a punch, Jack Reiss, a commissioner with the California State Athletic Commission, reviewed the footage and upheld the in-ring ruling of an accidental head clash.
Despite needing extra time to make weight the day before the fight, Navarrete felt strong. He stated, “I felt good. I felt strong. I felt complete. Unfortunately, what happened with the head-butt, obviously [the fight] ended like that. But while we were fighting, I felt good.”
Navarrete appeared to have difficulty seeing out of his left eye for the remainder of the sixth round, with blood streaming down his face. Suarez attempted to capitalize on this, landing several right hands that Navarrete seemed not to see coming. Navarrete`s corner did commendable work on the cut, but before the start of the eighth round, referee Edward Collantes stopped the bout on the recommendation of the ringside doctor.
Reflecting on the incident, Navarrete commented, “From the first moment of the impact, I knew it was a head-butt. It split my eyebrow completely, and from the first moment I noticed it was a head-butt.”
Navarrete`s professional record improves to 40-2-1 with 32 knockouts. He has secured world titles in three weight classes: junior featherweight, featherweight, and junior lightweight. He captured the WBO 130-pound belt with a ninth-round technical knockout against Liam Wilson in February 2023. Following three successful defenses, Navarrete moved up to lightweight (135 pounds) but lost a split decision challenging for the WBO title against Denys Berinchyk. He returned to junior lightweight to face Oscar Valdez in December, securing a dominant sixth-round knockout victory. This was a rematch of their initial encounter in August 2013, which Navarrete won by unanimous decision.
Considering his challenges making the 130-pound limit for this fight, there is speculation that Navarrete might permanently move up to the lightweight division for his next bout.
Navarrete addressed his future plans, saying, “First, we`re going to recover the cut that we have in the eyebrow. We just need to adjust a few things, but obviously we`re going to first take things calmly, make a decision and see if we want to stay at 130 or try again at 135 pounds.”
Charly Suarez, now 18-1 with 10 KOs, previously represented the Philippines in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio before turning professional at age 30. This technical decision loss was his first opportunity to fight for a major professional title. He earned the shot by stopping Jorge Castaneda in three rounds last September.
Co-Main Event: Muratalla Claims Interim Title
In the co-main event, Raymond Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) defeated Russia`s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) via unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF interim lightweight title. The judges` scores were wide: 118-110, 119-109, and 119-109.
Muratalla maintained a consistently high work rate throughout the 12 rounds, landing punches in double digits in ten of the rounds. He landed significantly more power punches than Abdullaev (82 to 36), including a 25-10 advantage in body shots.
Muratalla expressed his satisfaction after securing the belt: “It feels great to finally have this [belt] around my waist. [Abdullaev] was a tough fighter. He came to fight. We knew that. I was just using my skills, just picked him apart and beat him every round.”
With current IBF titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko recovering from a back injury and having until October to decide his boxing future, Muratalla is positioned as the mandatory challenger. Muratalla indicated that facing Lomachenko is his primary focus.
When asked about the possibility of fighting Lomachenko, Muratalla responded enthusiastically: “Absolutely. I`m the mandatory for him, so that`s what we`re looking forward to. It`ll be an honor to fight him to have his name in my résumé, and I`m looking forward to that.”
Ellis Thorne 
Percy Harlow