Emanuel Navarrete batters Oscar Valdez to retain WBO world title

Three-division world champion Emanuel Navarrete made a successful defense of his WBO world super featherweight title following a dominant unanimous decision nod over Oscar Valdez this Sunday (Philippine time) at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Navarrete came out swinging right off the gate, throwing hard combinations to the head and body that caught Valdez. After taking a few, Valdez came back and landed shots of his own.

Valdez turned up the heat in round two, backing Navarrete with relentless aggression only to see the latter fight back hard later in the stanza.

A big left uppercut caught Valdez in round three but Navarrete was unable to knock his opponent down. Valdez boxed in circles come the middle rounds, trying his best to avoid punches in bunches while trying to time his counter left hook.

Typical Navarrete threw more punches throughout the contest doubling his opponent's punch output. Valdez, meanwhile, was bent on landing one big punch but mostly missed the mark.

Navarrete and Valdez fought toe to toe in round 10. Navarrete, looking like the fresher fighter, got the better of the exchange swarming his foe with nonstop combinations.

Valdez fought with urgency in round 11 but was unable to hurt a still-aggressive Navarrete. All three judges saw the fight for Navarrete after twelve rounds, improving his record to 38-1 with 31 knockouts. The scorecards were 116-112, 118-110, and 119-109.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News