SAN DIEGO – Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete tried to become a lightweight champion last year to both enhance his stature with a fourth division belt and to lessen the strain of the weight cut.

The discomfort from losing and returning to his reign as junior-lightweight champion was seen Friday as Navarrete, 30, originally missed weight by four-tenths of a pound before needing most of the two-hour allotted period to trim the remaining weight. Finally, he dipped to the 130-pound limit and preserved the right to defend his belt on Saturday night on ESPN at Pechanga Arena.

“Exhalar,” an official advised Navarrete after he weighed in heavy for a third time at 130.1 pounds.

With that, the scale read 130, and Navarrete slapped his hands in celebration.   

The extended wait was required when Navarrete returned from his initial draining process, only to learn he was still at 130.2 pounds, bringing an anguished expression and a groan toward the California regulator who could only say, “Sorry.”

Mandatory and No. 1-ranked WBO contender Charly Suarez made weight on his first try, at 129.9 pounds, and said he relishes “my opportunity” to become a champion for the first time.

“I will do my best. I’ve dreamed of this,” Suarez said, raising his arms while on the scale before quickly retreating to his hotel room for a satisfying Filipino-style lunch of chicken, fish and rice while Navarrete was dealing with his own personal hell.

Navarrete expressed the pain of the cut Thursday, telling reporters he only wanted a couple of questions after the news conference. He returned to 130 successfully in December, stopping former two-division champion Oscar Valdez in the sixth round in Phoenix. 

“It hurts for a day, and then it’s better the next day,” Navarrete told BoxingScene.

For this bout, Navarrete, 39-2-1 (32 KOs), was presented the choices of 22-0 Andres Cortes, former 130lbs champion Robson Conceicao, and the 36-year-old Suarez, 18-0 (10 KOs), for this return to San Diego. This is the same venue at which he was upset by Denys Berinchyk one year ago this month, seeing the WBO lightweight strap lifted beyond his reach.

“The last guy I would’ve picked is Suarez, because he’s a right-handed Denys Berinchyk,” Top Rank’s Hall of Fame matchmaker Brad Goodman said. “He’s going to chase Suarez down. Suarez switches lefty to righty. And it’s been seen already that he has problems with movers. Maybe [he chose Suarez] because he’s the least of the punchers.”

Navarrete said he selected Suarez because he’ll be a rugged test as a sophisticated former Olympian.

“He has a lot of experience … Olympians always generate a lot of difficulties,” Navarrete said.

Victory would allow three-division champion Navarrete to join countrymen Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Rafael Espinoza in successful title defenses thus far this month.

“I love the Mexicans when they do great work, it’s very pleasing for me,” Navarrete said. 

Goodman foresees Las Vegas’ Cortes as the next opponent for Navarrete should both win.

“Navarrete is a real strong guy, and I expect him to assert that,” Goodman said.

In the IBF interim lightweight title bout, unbeaten Raymond Muratalla, 22-0 (17 KOs), of Fontana, California, weighed in at 134.4 pounds while Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev, 20-1 (12 KOs), came in at 134.6.

The featherweight bout between California’s unbeaten Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez and Jose Guardado Ortiz 16-3-1, (6 KOs), was canceled when Ortiz fainted during his weight-cut process and was briefly hospitalized for precautionary reasons, according to a Top Rank spokesman.

Gonzalez’s welterweight stablemate Giovanni Santillan, 33-1 (18 KOs), who also was upset in May 2024 by current WBO champion Brian Norman Jnr, weighed in at 147.2 for his San Diego homecoming bout (contracted at 148 pounds) against Mexico’s Angel Beltran (146.6). Both fighters are left-handers.

In the final pre-ESPN telecast bout – a four-rounder – junior-welterweight Dyllon Cervantes Alvarado weighed 139.6 pounds while Sammy Contreras of Palmdale, California, was 138.9. 

The unbeaten Cortes came in at 131.7 for his junior-lightweight, 10-round bout against Spain’s Salvador Jimenez (131.9) for the contracted 132-pound fight. Jimenez, like Navarrete, required multiple attempts. 

Female junior-bantamweights Mona Ward (114.1) and Perla Bazaldua (114.4) of South Central Los Angeles made weight for their second pro bouts. Bazaldua is a recent Top Rank signee. 

In a lightweight bout, Mexico’s Cristian Medina weighed 136.7 pounds after stripping bare while Kansas’ Alan Garcia weighed 136.7. 

In Saturday’s 10-round junior-featherweight opener, Azat Hovhannisyan weighed 122.7 pounds while unbeaten opponent Sebastian Hernandez of Mexico weighed 122 pounds.