Emanuel Navarrete’s recipe to success has been simple — stay active by booking as many fights into a calendar year as possible and once in the ring, drive his punch volume way up.
Before 2024 is a wrap, Navarrete will look to defend his WBO junior lightweight world title in a rematch against Oscar Valdez in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday night.
That will make it five fights that Navarrete has had in just under two years.
“We know that all fighters who are mainly active or physically active always get better results than those who take lots of breaks, lose their rhythm, and all that,” Navarrete tells DAZN News. “At least that’s how it is for me. I think that part is very important, and besides, I like being a very active fighter. For me, it’s very beneficial to be fighting constantly.”
It's a principle Navarrete, 29, has lived by throughout his career, with Top Rank founder and promoter Bob Arum noting that yearning for constant activity across several years.
“Navarrete fights with tremendous heart and determination,” Arum says. “Promoting him for the past several years has been a privilege. He has been one of the most active championship fighters since winning his first world title in 2018, and that has helped build his profile worldwide.”
Arum’s right. Navarrete had four fights in a splashy 2018 — the last bout crowning him world champion. He followed that bustling activity with four more bouts in 2019, three more in a pandemic 2020, two in 2021, and after just one in 2022, he fit in three into 2023.
“Vaquero” enters the Valdez rematch coming off a split-decision loss to Denys Berinchyk for the then-vacant WBO lightweight world title in May.
Throughout this breakneck activity, Navarrete (38-2-1, 31 KOs) has learned that sometimes it’s easy to get fights made; other times, he’s had to temper expectations and navigate through boxing’s business.
“Well, sometimes it’s really quick,” Navarrete says about getting fights made. “There are times when I don’t even have to fight to already know I have another fight lined up after it. However, when it comes to world championships, rankings, commitments with sanctioning bodies, and promoters, that part of the job is more complicated at times.”
He added: “Resolving it—or at least the relationships between fighters—can be tricky, and at times, it’s led to some important delays in my career. But overall, it’s not that difficult.”
In the ring, what hasn’t been difficult to discern is Navarrete’s fighting spirit and penchant for piecing together combinations with a high punch output. In delivering a unanimous decision over Valdez last August, he generated a staggering 1,038 punches to his fellow Mexican warrior’s 436, nearly tripling him up in output. Add that drive to Navarrete’s incessant motor and ability to use his reach to throw shots from unique angles, and stopping him is a complex order.
“I think my style is kind of tricky and makes for good fights with any fighter,” Navarrete says. “I believe it would be interesting against any of the other champions. Maybe the most complicated fight would be against an elusive fighter. I think that’s the toughest style to deal with. But it’s 100 percent interesting.”
Activity and his foot on the gas forward-fighting within it have been staples to a successful blueprint which Navarrete has outlined a new ambition on.
“Well, I think my main goal is to unify,” Navarrete says. “I feel like that’s something that has always been out of reach for me, but it’s something I really want to achieve. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make that goal a reality.”
Another convincing win over Valdez (32-2, 24 KOs) and Navarrete even has a fellow junior lightweight world champion in mind to unify with.
“At least now, with [O’Shaquie] Foster being in the same division as me and with the same promotion,” he says of the WBC titleholder, “that makes things a bit easier in terms of relationships with the promoters and speeds up the process for making fights happen quickly—whether for titles, unifications, or anything like that.”
The bustling activity continues.