GLENDALE, AZ – Some Mexican history was the plan. The plan survived.
So did Emanuel Navarrete.
Navarrete was forced to come back from the edge of losing Friday night to an unlikely Australian, LIam Wilson, a determined young fighter from Brisbane who was given no chance on either side of the equator.
Wilson arrived in Arizona after a training camp that included stops in Washington DC and London. He had punched his passport, all in an attempt to punch out the favored and feared Navarette. Wilson promised to win. He wasn’t kidding, but he couldn’t hold off Navarette, who regained his focus and ferocity just in time to win a vacant junior-lightweight title.
Navarrete (37-1, 31 KOs) did it in a wild ninth round. He moved forward, threw punches as if he was motivated by a mix of desperation and determination. For Wilson, a big right hand from Navarrete was the beginning of the end. It dropped Wilson, who collapsed onto the canvas in a thud that echoed throughout Desert Diamond Arena.
Wilson got to his feet. But his eyes were dazed and his defenses were down. Referee Chris Flores stopped it at 1:57 of the ninth. Flores ended it just as Wilson’s corner man was climbing up the steps. He was about to throw in the towel.
The crowd went wild. It was a celebration. It was also an expression of relief. Five rounds earlier, it looked as if Navarrete was about to lose. He was on the canvas in the fourth looking tired and beaten.
“But it was that Mexican spirit that never lets me down,” said Navarrete, who stormed back and fulfilled his goal of putting his name in Mexican history as the country’s 10th boxer to win a world title at a third weight. “The satisfaction of winning like this is enormous. I think that I needed this test in order to be able to say my career is more complete.
“Now that I know that I can hit the canvas and get back up and keep fighting, I’m more than happy because I know that I can continue forward.”
The crowd went silent in the fourth when the long-armed Navarette fell to the canvas and tumbled, head over heels, like a bowl full of cooked spaghetti. He was clearly hurt after Wilson (11-2, 7 KOs) landed two rights and a huge left.
“I just wanted to be [patient,” said Wilson, who also thanked Arizona after his gutsy performance.
Navarrete could also thank his good fortune. He was lucky. Had Wilson’s punches landed earlier the round, he might have been finished, then and there. He also was helped by Flores, who took several seconds to pick his mouth piece off the canvas and put it back in his mouth. Navarrete’s trip to the canvas happened with about 42 seconds left in the fourth. There wasn’t enough time left for Wilson to finish the job. Thanks in part to Flores, there also was just enough time for Navarrete to escape
To survive.
Arnold Barboza moves closer to title shot with solid decision
Arnold Barboza Jr. has been searching for a fight that would finally secure him a shot at a world title.
The search has been frustrating. Often futile.
But Barboza )28-0, 10 KOs) appeared to take a significant step toward completing the mission. The junior-welterweight from Southern California scored a solid victory over the decorated Jose Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs), a former two-time champ, in the final fight before ESPN’s main event between Emanuel Navarrete and Liam Wilson Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ.
The win — by unanimous decision – allowed Barboza to state his case. He was asked if he was closer to a world title.
“Of course,” he said, after winning 96-94, 97-93, 96-94 on the cards.
A possibility is Regis Prograis, the WBC champion.
“We’ll see what happens,” Barboza said. “But I feel like I’ve paid my dues.”
In beating Pedraza, the unbeaten Barboza becomes a lot harder to ignore. Or duck. Barboza controlled most of the 10 rounds against the skilled Pedraza, a Puerto Rican who returned to an arena where he upset Raymundo Beltran in August 2018. Pedraza had his moments, but he never could completely elude a sharp right hand that landed again. And again.
Punching Power: Richard Torrez Jr. delvers it for quick stoppage
He reads Plato. He punches with power.
The puncher-philosopher, Richrd Torrez Jr., delivered the power suddenly and definitively on the Navarrete-Wilson undercard Friday at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ.
Torrez (5-0 5KOs), a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, flashed heavyweight credentials, driving James Bryant (6-3, 4 KOs) into the ropes with an uppercut-right hand combo in the closing seconds of the first round
“From the knuckles through the hand, it was a solid shot,” said Torrez, who reads the great philosophers when he isn’t in the gym.
Bryant, of Reading PA, never recovered. He walked to his corner on unsteady feet. His trainer took one look at him and ended it before the bell for the second round ever sounded
Unbeaten Andre Cortes wins shutout
There were boos from restless fans. They wanted more.
Las Vegas junior-lightweight Andres Cortes heard them. And delivered.
Cortes (19-0, 10 KOs) injected some energy into an otherwise dull bout with aggressiveness that woke up the crowd and stunned Luis Melendez (17-3, 13 KOs) in the last fight before the main ESPN telecast of Navarrete-Wilson featured card at Desert Diamond Arena.
The sudden intensity from Cortes was enough for him to score a runaway decision over the Puerto Rican. He won it in a shutout, 100-90 on all three scorecards
Unknown Phoenix fighter gets up from knockdown, tests Ali Walsh late in loss
It’s one of boxing’s majestic names. It comes with crushing expectations. It can intimidate, both the man who has it and the man who faces it. But it didn’t scare or stop Eduardo Ayala, an unknown Phoenix middleweight who got up from a knockdown and went on to engage in a hard-fought battle with Nico Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali’s grandson.
Ayala told a couple of Phoenix sportswriters before the bout Friday that he wasn’t fighting a name. He was just another guy, another fighter, Ayala said. Ali Walsh looked as if he might have been a little bit more than just that in the second round. A thundering left hook put Ayala flat on the canvas..
But he recovered, then endured a succession of shots from the Las Vegas middleweight who inherited the greatest expectations. Ayala would not go away. He wouldn’t win either. Ali Walsh (8-0, 5 KOs) won a unanimous decision (59-54, 60-53, 59-54), one that was all but assured with the early knockdown.
But Ayala (9-3-1, 3 KOs) won over the crowd in the third fight on the Navarrete-Wilson card at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ. As both fighters hugged after the sixth and final round, fans who had chanted the familiar “Ali.Ali” were chanting “Ayala, Ayala.”
Lindolfo Delgado stays unbeaten, dominates in decision win
Mexican junior-welterweight Lindolfo Delgado employed defense, careful footwork and power in the second bout on an an ESPN-televised card featuring Emanuel Navarrete-Liam Wilson Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz.,
It was a triple-edged attack that proved to be too much for Clarence Booth of Saint Petersburg, Fla.
Delgado (17-0, 13 KOs), who had trainer Robert Garcia in his corner, repeatedly landed crisp counters that echoed through the arena and backed Booth (21-7, 13 KOs) into the ropes, onto the canvas for an eighth-round knockdown and – in the end — into defeat. Delgado won on all three cards, a decision, one-sided and unanimous.