Oscar Valdez says he has studied Emanuel Navarrete’s style and is confident he will dethrone the WBO super heavyweight champion on Saturday, December 7 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
(Credit: Runk Top)
Valdez (32-2, 24 KOs) feels he knows what went wrong in his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Navarrete last year on Aug. 12, 2023, and he wants to make amends this time around.
Oscar won’t say if he has a one-sided loss to Navarrete (38-2-1, 31 KOs), because if he doesn’t win this fight, it’s hard to imagine he’ll continue in this fight. weight class. Navarrete has been hitting 100% in his last three fights against these fighters:
– Denis Berinchik: 12-SD loss
– Robson Conceicao: 12 draws (*must lose).
– Liam Wilson: TKO 9 (*Controversial. Survived 4th round knockout)
Saturday’s event will feature Navarrete-Valdez live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT/
Navarrete vs. Valdes scores
119-100
118-110
116-112
Valdez: “Am I getting smarter?
“I fought with Emanuel Navarrete. I knew I made a lot of mistakes in the first fight, I can always go back and see our mistakes and train hard in the gym,” said Oscar Valdez to Sean Zittel. “I trained smartly for this fight.
“Now I know what to expect. I’ve been in the ring with him. I know he hits hard. I know he’s tough. Now I’m going to the gym and we’re training specifically for this fight. First time i walked in not knowing what to expect or thinking what to expect until i walked inside that ring with him.
“Now that I know that, I’ll be a smarter fighter out there. I thank the Lord for another chance to fight him, because I feel like a lot of fighters don’t get a second chance. I’m one of them. fighters who have another chance. I feel happier and more excited than ever,” Valdez said.
Former two-division world champion Valdez claims he didn’t train Navarrete for his previous fight, which is hard to believe. How could Valdez, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian and former two-division world champion, not study Navarrette to pick areas he can exploit? Coming into this fight, Navarrete had only lost once in as many years back in 2012, and he was not a fighter that anyone could ignore.
Valdez vs. Navarrete punch statistics
– Navarrete: 216 of 1038 shots for 21%
– Valdez: 140 of 436 for 32%
“This is the fight for me. This is the fight that will define my career,” Valdez said of his rematch against “Vaquero” Navarrete on Saturday night. Valdez also lost to Shakur Stevenson. So he can’t just say the Navarretti fight “defined” his career because the loss to Shakur was even worse.
“This is the first time I’m going to have a rematch with someone who actually beat me,” Valdez said. “It can make it more complicated, because you know that you have been there with them, and your mind can play tricks on you, saying that you lost to him.
“No, I want to be an example that you can lose it, but you always have to come back. You can do this. Just because you lost doesn’t mean you’re out. I proved that in my last fight with Liam Wilson, but I want to make a better impression against the guy who really beat me. It was not a close fight.”
Navarrete’s Vulnerability
All can bounce back, but how their previous fight was last year, Valdez will need a much different approach to win the rematch. Navarrete has been beaten and blanked in three of his last four fights since last year. The only fight he did well was against Valdez. Also, Navarrete should have a 1-3 record in his last four fights. The judges and referee saved him in the fight against Conceicao and Wilson.
In his last fight, he was defeated by Denis Berinchik, and even in that match, despite being one-sided, he came close to victory. Berinchik trained an out-of-shape Navarrete on May 18 and defeated him by a 12-round split decision in San Diego, California.
I put it 11-1 in favor of Berinchik. It was completely one-sided, but I wasn’t surprised that the judges in Southern California got it close. It was expected, but it was anything but close. Navarrete didn’t seem to miss many meals.
“This fight was one-sided. I want to prove that you can train and you can come back and win. I want to show this example. “For me to set that example, I have to win this fight first,” Valdez said.
In their previous fight on August 12, 2023, it looked like Navarrete had too much size and power for the 5’5 1/2″ Valdez. Three of the guys the 5’7″ Navarrete had trouble with last year were either taller than him or the same size. Valdez and his coach Eddie Reynoso need a better game plan because he doesn’t have the size and power to get the better of Navarrete like Wilson, Berinchik and Conceicao.
