Navarrete And Valdez Ready To Go To ‘War’
Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez held their last presser ahead of their WBO Junior Lightweight Title clash on Saturday.
Navarrete makes the defense of his WBO belt in a rematch where he prevailed in their first fight. Navarrete was in control in the first fight, as he exerted more pressure. He landed 1038 punches in the full fight. However, a hand injury during the middle rounds allowed Valdez back in the fight as Oscar took it to the final bell. Since that fight, both fighters have had contrasting fortunes. Navarrete secured a win over Robson Conceicao in his next fight before making the decision to move up to lightweight.
He squared off against Denys Berinchyk for a chance to win the vacant WBO Lightweight Title. However, a loss has seen him switch his focus back to 130. Meanwhile, Valdez bounced back from the Navarrete defeat by beating Liam Wilson. The victory put him in a mandatory position as the WBO Interim Junior Lightweight Champion. While he has another shot at the title, he has fallen short at world level, having lost to Shakur Stevenson and Navarrete. But Valdez knows he may not get a better shot of a win given Navarrete’s recent loss. The two had pleny to say.
Navarrete Vs. Valdez
“We all know that we both plan to come out and give a war and leave everything in the ring again. And what better way to do it than by having a co-main event that’s gonna eat things up? The bar is gonna be set really high and so we’re gonna have to try to do better than that. It’s gonna be hard especially with these two great people {Espinoza and Ramirez} right next to us. It’s gonna be difficult for both me and Valdez. However, we don’t need much. All we need is for the bell to ring for us to go to war.
“I’m focused 100 percent on him. I haven’t thought about anything beyond Valdez. And now he’s coming with a different strategy. The first fight helped us learn about each other. And now we will use the tools that we extracted from the first fight. And, aside from using our experience with each other, we will also come with the same heart as last time. So, I can’t say much, but no doubt it will be not just a fight but an epic event, especially with the co-main before us,” Navarrete
Further Quotes
“The {Liam Wilson fight} was very important for me because boxing penalizes you if you have a lot of losses. It’s not like other sports where you can lose and you can do better in the next season. In boxing, most people don’t want to see you again after a couple of losses. So, doing that fight was very important for me. That’s why there was so much emotion for me after that fight. And that fight got me the ticket for this rematch.
“This is not an easy fight. This is a hard task. But nothing in life that is worth it is going to be easy. It’s always going to be hard. So, we trained hard. I’m excited for this. I’m excited to face the great ‘Vaquero’ once again. It’s going to be a great fight.
“I visualized this. I feel I can do a lot more in the sport. After I lost, I went back home and was obviously sad and disappointed in my performance. But then you go back to the gym, and you start to work out. Then, you start to see that you can do better. So, you have to visualize it first. And now we are here. Let’s get it on,” Valdez
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