Junior lightweight contender Andres Cortes favors Emanuel Navarrete over Charly Suarez. Regardless of the outcome, he wants to fight the winner.

Cortes fights Salvador Jimenez in a 10-round bout on May 10 at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California. The bout will be on the undercard of Navarrete-Suarez, which will be for the WBO junior lightweight title. 

The 27-year-old Cortes, 22-0 (12 KOs), knows of Suarez well. They were scheduled to fight in September. Cortes of Las Vegas believes that Navarette will be leaving victorious in the main event. 

“It could be difficult in the beginning, but he should end up finishing that guy, that's me being honest,” Cortes told BoxingScene. “I was supposed to fight Suarez. I did study him, so I know how it's going to go down.”

Cortes further explained the flaw he sees in the undefeated Suarez, 18-0 (11 KOs). Suarez, a 36-year-old fighter from Davao del Norte province in the Philippines, enters with 123 rounds of professional experience. Navarrete, a multi-division titleholder, enters with double the experience in terms of professional rounds at 246.  

“His professional experience is very low,” Cortes said. “He hasn't fought anyone. He hasn't been hit with a hard shot. So, now he's going to go in there and fight a guy who hits hard. He's most likely going to fold.”

Cortes will be returning to the ring after nearly an 11-month break. He commented on his layoff and believes it was a positive. 

“I had a good little break. I think I needed that mentally,” Cortes said. “I'm dying to get back in the ring. I want to stay busy and keep fighting. So, we get this fight out of the way and start looking for another one right away.”

An interesting subplot is that the 30-year-old Navarrete, 39-2-1 (32 KOs), suffered a loss a year ago at the same arena. Navarrete of San Juan Zitlaltepec, Mexico, was attempting to become a four-division world champion, but lost to Denys Berinchyk. Since that bout, Navarrete returned to defeat Oscar Valdez in December. 

Cortes wants the winner of the main event, even stating that a fight between himself and Navarrete could be one of the best of the year. 

“I would have been willing to go toe to toe with Navarrete for 12 rounds,” Cortes said. ”I think that's what the fans want to see. We could have delivered a fight of the year.”