When is Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez?
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez is on Saturday, February 28. The main broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (1 a.m. GMT).
A preliminary undercard is scheduled to start at 5:20 p.m. ET (10:20 p.m. GMT).
What channel is Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez on?
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez will stream on DAZN.
Where is Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez?
The fight is taking place at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Who is Emanuel Navarrete?
Emanuel Navarrete, 39-2-1 (32 KOs), is the WBO junior lightweight titleholder. The 31-year-old from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Distrito Federal, Mexico, previously held the sanctioning body’s belts at junior featherweight and featherweight.
Navarrete’s last defense, against mandatory challenger Charly Suarez this past May, ended controversially. On paper, Suarez seemed as if he should have been outmatched against Navarrete. While undefeated, Suarez was 36 years old and had never been in with top-tier opposition. But on fight night, Suarez stepped up and gave Navarrete a good battle.
Indeed, Navarrete suffered a cut over his left eyebrow in the sixth round that was bad enough for the bout to be stopped at the start of the eighth. There were just two big problems. One, the referee had ruled that the cut was caused by an accidental clash of heads, which meant the fight would be sent to the scorecards. Navarette was named the winner by narrow technical decision. Two, those would prove to be the wrong ruling and result. Replay footage had initially seemed inconclusive until about 30 minutes after the stoppage, when it became clear that the cut had actually been caused by a shot from Suarez.
That meant Suarez should have been the TKO winner. Weeks later, the California State Athletic Commission recognized that it didn’t want to end Navarrete’s title reign after the fact through a vote. So it instead overturned Navarrete’s win into a no-contest, and the WBO ordered a rematch. Their rematch has yet to happen. Navarrete didn’t fight for the remainder of 2025 and now returns in a unification bout, looking to add another title belt to his collection.
Navarrete’s first world title win came in 2018, when he outpointed Isaac Dogboe. He beat him again in their rematch, forcing Dogboe’s corner to throw in the towel during the final round. Navarrete notched four more successful defenses before moving up to featherweight.
Navarrete’s next reign was at 126bs and started in 2020, when he outpointed the previously unbeaten Ruben Villa for a vacant belt. He defended it with three wins over Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz – who recently faced Nunez and has insights on this unification bout – as well as Joet Gonzalez and Eduardo Baez.
After defeating Baez, Navarrete went up to 130 and grabbed a vacant title with a ninth-round TKO of Liam Wilson in early 2023. That was followed with a decision over former titleholder Oscar Valdez and a draw with Robson Conceicao. Navarrete then journeyed up to lightweight in an attempt to grab a world title in a fourth weight class, but he lost a split decision to Denys Berinchyk in a bout for a vacant belt in May 2024.
That was Navarrete’s first defeat since his sixth pro fight all the way back in 2012. Navarrete returned to junior lightweight and clobbered Valdez for six rounds in their December 2024 rematch, then moved on to last year’s fight with Suarez.
Who is Eduardo Nunez?
Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez, 29-1 (27 KOs), is the IBF junior lightweight titleholder. The 28-year-old from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, has won 19 consecutive fights since suffering his sole defeat early in his career, a razor-thin decision loss to the 9-2-2 Hiram Gallardo in 2018.
Nunez built up plenty of hype during that win streak, with all of his victories coming by way of knockout or technical knockout. In 2023, he made quick work of both of his opponents, dispatching the 18-0 Jesus Martin Ceyca in the second round and doing the same thing to 27-6 former secondary titleholder Oscar Escandon. In his sole fight of 2024, Nunez made Miguel Marriaga call it a night after six rounds.
That landed Nunez a title shot in 2025 for the vacant IBF belt that had formerly belonged to Anthony Cacace. Nunez traveled to Japan and went the 12-round distance for the first time, outpointing Masanori Rikiishi for the title. In his first defense, Nunez performed in front of his hometown this past September and won an entertaining decision over Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz.
What other fights are on the undercard of Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez?
The undercard includes a welterweight fight between Tahmir Smalls, 16-0 (11 KOs), and Abel Ramos, 28-6-3 (22 KOs), who hasn’t competed since battling Mario Barrios to a draw in November 2024.
Also on this show: junior welterweight prospect Emiliano Vargas, 16-0 (13 KOs), faces Agustin Ezequiel Quintana, 22-2-1 (13 KOs); and junior featherweight prospect Arturo Cardenas – also known as Arturo Popoca – who is 17-0-1 (9 KOs), will meet Jordan Martinez, 16-0 (15 KOs).
The full list of undercard fights can be seen on BoxRec.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
