In a fight that was just beginning to heat up and get real interesting, the plug was pulled on the contest between Emanuel Navarette and Charly Suarez. Navarette suffered a cut (and much more on that later) in the sixth, and in round seven Suarez seemed to be building momentum at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego. Then as the eighth began the fight was halted.
Since it was ruled that Navarette's injury was caused by a clash of heads (again, much more on that later) they went to the scorecards which read 77-76 (twice) and 78-75 in favor of Navarette, who retains his WBO junior lightweight title via technical decision.
So yeah, credit 'El Vacquero' with the win, and referee Edward Collantes and the rest of the California State Athletic Commission with the save.
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In the ensuing aftermath, ESPN aired the replay numerous times. It was akin to seeing Joe Theismann getting his leg snapped in half on Monday Night Football in 1985, or when Buckwheat got shot on Saturday Night Live. Still, no matter how many times it was shown, the evidence was not conclusive. Tim Bradley, who called the action alongside Bernardo Osuna vacillated on his opinion on what caused that gash over Navarette's left eye.
Was it that solid left hand from Suarez, or the scraping of heads between the two that immediately followed it, that was the cause of that gash?
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But as the broadcast ended on ESPN, and they switched over to 'State of the Game' on ESPN+, a zoomed in, super slow-mo replay was produced. It showed that it was indeed a clean blow that caused the injury to Navarrete. The ringside physician (Dr. Robert Ruelaz) ruled that this ailment was bad enough for the fight to be halted, well, in that case it should've been TKO for Suarez.
https://x.com/Yolanda020473/status/1921423029856354763
Boxingscene.com is reporting that the CSAC could be changing this result to a no-contest.
Which is still a miscarriage of justice for Suarez. The bottom line is Navarrete is still in possession of the belt, and even if the WBO mandates an immediate rematch, Suarez will not have the economic leverage that comes with being the champion. This should be made clear, nobody really believes that Suarez was on his way to a guaranteed victory. It was a close, hard-fought battle, but given Navarette's issues in making weight, you could surmise that the toughest part of the fight had been cleared by Suarez. Chances are he might have had more in the gas tank than his foe in the championship rounds.
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Should they meet again, there is no guarantee that he will face that particular version of Navarette. You never truly face the exact same guy twice. Do you really think Ray Leonard faced the same Roberto Duran twice just several months apart? Sometimes your best -- and only -- opportunity to beat a particular guy comes on a certain night where all the stars are aligned in your favor.
That's why they are called upsets, and why they are so special.
I won't say this was corruption, it was a tough call that had to be made in minutes. I get that. But what irks many fans is that these types of breaks always seem to fall in favor of the A-side. Who can forget the rematch between Frankie Randall and Julio Cesar Chavez, where Flip Homansky threw 'JC Superstar' a life line in a fight that Randall seemed to be surging ahead. (Yeah, I'm still a bit sour over that one, admittedly.)
More recently, I recall being on press row on the night of September 14, 2019 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when Tyson Fury was sliced up pretty bad early on versus Otto Wallin. In many other instances, that fight would've been waved off but with the specter of Fury facing Deontay Wilder in several months (in Las Vegas, by the way), there was absolutely no way that fight was ever going to be stopped.
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For those who disagree with me, OK, fine. But ask yourself this, if the roles were reversed and it was Suarez who was the 'house' fighter in this instance, and Navarette the relatively unknown, do you really think it would have played out the way it did this past weekend?
“Right now I’m sad, but that is part of the game, and I know that Navarrete won the fight, but that’s part of the game. I would like to make a rematch. I want a rematch with Navarrete," said Suarez, who was more gracious in defeat than should be expected given the circumstances.
Boxing is tough, unfortunately, it's also very unfair.
