Emmanuel Navarrete Battles Oscar Valdez This Saturday On ESPN+

Emmanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez will battle Saturday night in a twelve-round match that is set to become an ESPN Shootout on August 12 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

As Tim Bradley notes, Navarrete (37-1, 31 KOs) looked sloppy earlier this year, winning the WBO free featherweight belt after defeating Liam Wilson in the ninth round this past February.

Although Navarrete won, he was stopped and looked technically unsettled, knocked down by Wilson in the fourth round, and knocked out until the Australian was choked later on.

ESPN and ESPN + Navarrete vs. Valdez happened this Saturday at 10:00 PM ET.
Valdez has better boxing skills and will look to take advantage of the slow, rounded punches Navarrete tends to throw. Navarrete, 28, has won world titles in three events, but the people he’s fought for aren’t high-profile boxers.

Navarrete won three titles against these boxers: Isaac Dogbo, Ruben Villa and Liam Wilson. Valdes is pleased that Navarrete had a tougher than expected match against Liam Wilson in February.

Navarrete fell to fourth place, and the only thing he managed to escape was spitting out his mouthpiece, then asking to be rinsed before putting it back on. Even with the event much postponed, Navarrete was nearly suspended for the rest of the tour.

This was Navarrete’s first fight in the 130th division, and he showed that he was not the same fighter in that weight class as when he fought in the 122nd and 126th.

Without a significant height advantage over his opponents, Navarrete is an ordinary boxer, which is why he could be in serious trouble on Saturday night against Valdez.

Let’s hope Navarrete doesn’t spit out his mouth if he lets go of Valdez because that might not save him this time.

Some boxing fans believe that the reason Navarrete vacated his WBO featherweight belt was because two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeci Ramirez was his agent, and he saw the word written on the wall if he held the belt to defend against Cuban talent.

It would be nice if Navarrete stayed at No. 126 long enough to take on Robese as it would be an interesting match compared to the people he fought while holding the WBO belt. Valdez (31-1, 23 KOs) fought a much better opponent in Navarrete, with a headwind on these boxers:

– Scott Quigg
– Robson Conceição
– Miguel Berchelt
– Shakur Stevenson
– Genesis Servania
– Adam Lopez

The undercard was completely packed, with lightweight contender Raymond Moratala facing Diego Torres Nunez in the main support position and 2020 USA Olympics heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr. against Willie Geek Jr.

Work under another card

– Lindolfo Delgado vs. Jair Valtierra
– Sergio Leon Rodriguez vs. Edurdo Ayala
– Antonio Mirelas vs. Dajuan Calloway
– Emiliano Vargas vs. Jorge Luis Marquez Alvarado
– Ricardo Ruvalcaba vs. TBA

You want to talk about the fight between Emmanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez. It’s going to be an absolute fight,” Joe Tessitor told Top Rank Boxing of Saturday’s competition on ESPN and ESPN+.