PHOENIX — Many of the most legendary Mexican fighters of the modern era got together ahead of Top Rank’s event in Phoenix to talk boxing.
There was Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales, and Marco Antonio Barrera. They all agreed on one thing. Though their nation has forged pugilistic rivalries with countries like Puerto Rico, and then the Philippines through Manny Pacquiao, nothing quite compares when there are two Mexicans in the ring fighting one another for something more valuable to them than money and world championship belts.
“It’s pride,” boxing headliner Oscar Valdez told World Boxing News days before his rematch with Emanuel Navarrete. “It’s honor.”
It was always going to be a fitting city and venue for Navarrete and Valdez to fight in, as Phoenix has become a combat hotbed, and the fans who flock to the Footprint Center are loud, raucous, and unapologetically pro-Mexican.
In the concourse before WBN even took its seat on press row, we saw fans spill micheladas everywhere as they passionately sang along with the mariachi band that did laps of the concession stands, in between their songs for fighters who made their walks to the ring. There were loud chants of “Me-hi-co!” There were Mexican flags, and there was La Ola — a Mexican wave — for good measure.
This was boxing. This was Top Rank boxing.
And so, on Saturday, December 7, Navarrete and Valdez picked up where they left off in 2023, as they understood the assignment when it came to re-booking a Fight of the Year contender from back then, beginning the 13th round just like they’d finished the 12th.
Navarrete, with his long arms and an awkward stance and style that many an opponent can do nothing about, was hurt with a shot early to the body, however, it was he who scored first blood by putting Valdez down onto the mat in that opening round. When attempting to duck beneath a Navarrete hook shot, Valdez mistimed the move and got caught clean by the punch.
Though Valdez returned to his feet seemingly in check with his senses, and with enough wherewithal to throw singular shots until the end of the round, they both took things up a notch in the second round, as they fought fire with fire.
Valdez began the third by tagging Navarrete’s chin with an uppercut, and had weapons in his arsenal that were a threat in the fight but the story of the early rounds remained Navarrete’s sick and twisted desire to seal an early knockout win. He didn’t seem content with merely bludgeoning Valdez like he did in the first fight, he wanted the punctuation mark. The slam dunk. The home run. Navarrete wanted that knockout.
He almost got it there and then. Even when Valdez landed a clubbing hook, Navarrete returned fire with shot after shot as he began battering his 33-year-old opponent around the ring.
And, though Navarrete had asserted his authority on the fight, at the end of the fourth round, the referee appeared to assist the widening of the gap between the fighters as he ruled a push as a knockdown for the champion.
Undeterred, Valdez continued to fight. When it comes to pride, and honor, few exude as much heart as he does.
But heart can only get you so far. Especially when you’re fighting Navarrete, who showcased superior skills with a three-punch combination that saw all three punches land in quick succession.
His uppercut even thumped the mouthpiece out of Valdez’s jaw. Bang.
Then, the punches just kept on coming. Valdez tried to power punch his way out of trouble, but he left himself open for a counter left to the body, which crumpled him in an instant. Though Valdez was conscious, he could do nothing but get counted out as he grimaced in pain on his knees.
It was all over — repeat for Navarrete, rather than revenge for Valdez, albeit this time with that knockout he’d been chasing the whole night.
“It’s all about continuing the [Mexican] legacy of the great Julio Cesar Chavez,” Navarrete said immediately after his knockout win over Valdez, arguably the finest of his career to date, which advanced his record to 39-2-1 (32 KOs).
“We’re going to do great things in 2025,” he said, before hinting about a move to lightweight. “I can assure you it will be one or two more fights at 130 pounds, before activity at 135.”
The main event was not the only rematch on this Top Rank doubleheader as, immediately before in the co-main event, Rafael Espinoza surged to a thumping, sixth-round knockout win over Robeisy Ramirez to retain the WBO featherweight world title.
Espinoza had a defense for Ramirez’s counters, and used his physical advantages to leverage uppercuts and hook shots swung from a taller stance than Ramirez would have mostly been used to.
Ramirez complained of elbow strikes in the fourth round. “That’s when I started to see double,” he said after the fight. “I told the referee. He did his job [as] he scolded [Espinoza] but the damage had been done already.”
Only seconds into the sixth round, Ramirez turned his back on Espinoza. And the fight. And so the referee had no choice but to wave it all off. Though Espinoza’s trainer Manny Robles appeared confused as to what was happening with Ramirez, Espinoza himself was well aware of what it all meant — and so he jumped on one of the corners of the ring to gesticulate wildly to the crowd. He’d won. He’d made Ramirez quit.
The final punch clattered off of Ramirez’s eye. It was, perhaps, the same eye that he’d complained about seeing double through. It was enough for him to abandon the fight.
“It’s the best decision,” Ramirez said. “I did that instead of taking more punches, especially seeing double, and [not being] at my best.”
Espinoza refused to entertain what he believed to be excuses from his opponent. “Obviously, I caught him [but] I was barely getting started,” he said. “Honestly, I think the pressure and the rest of the rounds were going to be very difficult for him. This means that he felt my power. He felt my hand. Perhaps he thought that he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“But it happened. I won.”
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Alan Dawson is World Boxing News Lead Writer, a 2 x Sports Journalist of the Year finalist, and 5 x BWAA awards winner. Follow Alan @AlanDawsonSport.