By Norm Frauenheim
Reborn Emanuel Navarrete fought his way back from the edge of retirement and now looks at a restored future that starts with options, a decision and perhaps a dilemma.
What’s next?
More to the point, who’s next?
A couple of weeks after a dramatic career-best stoppage of Eduardo Nunez, Navarrete must choose between a promise and an opportunity.
Charly Suarez?
Or O’Shaquie Foster?
The either-or could change, of course. Unforeseen options are like insults from feuding promoters. There’s always another one.
This week, however, there were only two for Navarrete, who on Wednesday got an order that — in acronym-speak — told him he had 20 days to negotiate a deal for a “mandatory” rematch.
The only mandatory here is skepticism, of course. The only bet is an extension. Negotiations and Navarrete’s decision figure to go on for a while.
The dilemma was Navarrete’s own doing. In a contentious arena often devoid of what Ernest Hemingway called “grace under pressure,” a maturing Navarrete showed some.
He thanked Suarez.
He also acknowledged he owed him one.
“I know I owe Suarez that rematch,’’ Navarrete said at a news conference in the immediate aftermath of his 11th-round TKO of Nunez in front of a roaring crowd in Glendale, AZ.
The rematch has been there, at one level or another, amid lingering echoes of the controversy over the Navarrete-Suarez fight in May. At first, Navarrete was declared the winner by an eighth-round “technical decision.” The referee ruled that a cut above his left eye was caused by a punch.
Thirty minutes after the San Diego fight, however, video showed the cut was caused by a Suarez punch.
Weeks later, the California State Athletic Commission changed the result, ruling it a dreaded “No Contest.”
Ten months later, there’s still no rematch. It screams for one. It sounds as if Suarez is already counting on it. The Filipino told Boxing Scene that he wants the rematch in Las Vegas.
On the last night in February, he was in the Arizona crowd for Navarrete’s victory, a definitive performance that proved to be a powerful answer to most questions about Navarrete’s future. It’s never been brighter.
Nevertheless, a ruling at a regulatory meeting allowed him to retain a title that many believe Suarez had rightfully taken from him in the ring. It remains unresolved, because Suarez stepped aside, allowing Navarrete to fight Nunez.
For that, Navarrete is thankful. But it’s still not clear whether he’ll agree to a sequel, or simply relinquish the WBO belt and move on to another 130-pound unifier against Foster.
Foster was in the Arizona crowd, too.
“Let’s do it …let’s make it happen,’’ Foster told reporters.
Then, he went on to suggest he has more name-recognition than Suarez.
“My profile has been raised,” he said.
Foster also has something that Suarez doesn’t. He’s got a junior-lightweight title, the World Boxing Council’s version – the green belt valued more than any other, especially by Mexican fighters.
The powerful Foster, who like Navarrete is a Top Rank fighter, also represents a significant 130-pound challenge to Navarrete’s renewed aspirations. There was talk that Navarrete merits some serious pound-for-pound consideration after his stoppage of a feared Nunez, a fellow Mexican who was the betting favorite at opening bell.
A victory over Foster would validate what Navarrete did against Nunez. It also would answer a lingering question about Navarrete’s consistency.
He had grown erratic, which was all too evident in a now-forgotten, yet still-controversial stoppage of unknown Australian Liam Wilson, also in Glendale where Navarrete won a then-vacant WBO title in February 2023.
To do it, Navarrete had to get up from the only knockdown in his career. He was floored by a left hook. Clearly dazed, he was still alert enough to spit out his mouthpiece, giving him a controversial 27 seconds to recover. He survived.
Wilson’s corner was outraged. It threatened a protest. It demanded a rematch. Wilson never got one. Will Suarez?
For now, not even Navarrete knows. It’s a tough question, one bound to be controversial in the court of public opinion.
Stand-up guy?
Or pound-for-pound guy?
