GLENDALE, Arizona – Blood and guts were promised – and delivered.
Three-division champion Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico unleashed a relentless, long-armed attack for the duration of his Saturday night junior lightweight unification bout versus countryman Eduardo Nunez, winning by 11th-round TKO on the ringside doctor’s stoppage.
The doctor first inspected Nunez’s cut before the 10th, emphasizing his desperation.
The cut worsened and the swelling increased in a vicious 10th, where outgoing IBF titleholder Nunez was pummeled in his corner by a free-swinging Navarrete.
“This is sport. It can be difficult to see your opponent hurt, but I need to continue to do the work,” Navarrete, 40-2-1 (33 KOs), said afterward, wearing the patented cowboy hat that accompanies his nickname, “Vaquero.”
It’s the first time that Navarrete, 31, stands as a unified champion, and he’ll need to decide whether he wants to defend his belts in a rematch versus Charly Suarez of the Philippines or drop his WBO belt to pursue a shot at WBC belt holder and Top Rank stablemate O’Shaquie Foster.
“It’s a dream to be here. I’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity,” Navarrete said.
When asked why he looked so better than he did in barely edging Suarez by a technical decision caused by his own cut near the eye, Navarrete said, “There were many things that are difficult to explain, but mostly, I got back to the heart and guts of being a Mexican warrior.”
That willingness and doggedness to pursue a firefight aided Navarrete because he had the length and superior boxing talent to batter Nunez, 29-2 (27 KOs).
Navarrete started by looking to land power shots thanks to his reach, launching whipping type blows to the face and body. Nunez circled and threw a few heavy blows but seemed content to establish range.
Navarrete’s ability to grasp the feel early on paced him to win the second round, as well, with his push forward and instigation dictating the event.
Nunez was blasted late in the third by a hard right hand and a vicious left uppercut.
Navarrete latched on to the confidence from that sequence to greet Nunez with forceful blows at the start of the fourth.
Nunez was bleeding under the right eye off of a pair of combinations, and Navarrete seized upon the cut, smacking Nunez with hard body blows that backed the IBF titlist.
“I knew he was the strongest fighter at 130lbs,” Nunez, 28, said. “I’ve admired him for so long.”
There was no more time to digest the fellow champion’s skills as the fifth opened, and Nunez charged to send blows to the body and head, leading Navarrete to gladly reciprocate with his own thudding punches that fulfilled the expected toe-to-toe hype around the bout.
Nunez paid dearly for rushing in, his defensive liabilities being exposed by a veteran who has been tested by far more rigorous competition, including two-division champion Oscar Valdez.
In a neutral corner, Nunez tested his chin mightily, exchanging mercilessly with Navarrete during the sixth as each titlist absorbed destructive shots and kept punching.
Navarrete’s ability to land the bigger shots while keeping his head at a safe range proved the difference, as Nunez was left to lean in and eat hammering punches.
Nunez went all in at Navarrete’s body in the eighth, setting up exchanges featuring thunderous head blows. There was the right eye swelling and cut right eyelid for Nunez after that, and Navarrete launched three hard rights in the ninth that each literally hit the nail on the head.
Nunez continued seeking the body, and was blasted all the more for the effort.
“I would’ve liked to finish the fight,” Nunez said. “I want to be champion again.”
Judging by what transpired Saturday, it will have to be in a division and for a belt not involving Navarrete.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
