Emanuel Navarrete Wins in San Diego

Emanuel Navarrete Kos Baez on Top Rank Show in San Diego

By Tarrah Zael

(All photos by Al Applerose)

A fight that looked to be going in his favor ended early for Eduardo Baez after a hard landing shot from Emanuel Navarrete brought him to his knees Saturday night in San Diego.

WBO featherweight titlist Navarrete (36-1, 30 Kos) rallied to upset Baez (21-3-2, 7 Kos) who had control of the main event fight at Pechanga Arena. z (21-3-2, 7 KO) It appeared to take Navarrete a couple of rounds to warm up.

After his 10-month layoff in the scheduled 12-round featherweight battle, “being away from the ring made it tough for me,” said Navarrete.

The fight was fairly competitive with Baez the main aggressor and even outpunched Navarrete. At the time of stoppage, Baez was up on two of the judge’s scorecards.

“I never underestimated Eduardo Baez. I knew that he was an excellent fighter and the fact that he hit pretty hard. It was a lot more complicated than I anticipated,” said Navarrete.

But then came the shot that ended the fight, Navarrete set up his shot perfectly ending the fight 1:05 in the sixth round. It was a liver shot that Baez could not recover from, the referee called the fight and it was over.

“That’s a very Mexican punch. It comes with my blood. And you can see, I don’t throw a perfect left hook like you’re used to seeing. But this one came out perfect for me”, says Navarrete after he successfully defended his WBO title. This was Navarrete’s third title defense and he hinted, it may be his last as he will take some time with his team to figure out his next move.

Co-feature, Santillan vs Luna

San Diego native, Giovanni Santillan (30-0, 16 KO) continuously found a home for his left hook against Mexico’s Julio Luna (19-1-2, 10 KO) in a 10-round welterweight battle. Santillan ultimately won the unanimous decision but not after taking some repeated damage from Luna who went toe to toe trading shots.

It was a battle to retain their undefeated record and Luna fought hard to defend his. Many uppercuts and head clashes may have given Luna some success throughout the fight but Santillan battled his way through and adjusted his game plan to prevent a cut over his right eye from getting any worse.

“It was a rough fight, a lot of headbutts, but I battled through it. That was a hard 10 rounds,” Santillan explained after his fight. He remained victorious, “it was a lot tougher than I expected. Luna gave me a great fight, and I am just thankful for the opportunity to fight once again in my hometown”. The judges scored the fight, 96-94 and 100-90 twice.

Ali Walsh vs Sanchez

Grandson of the great Muhammad Ali, Nico Ali Walsh knocked out his opponent 2:45 in the second round. It was a shot heard around the world and some fans claimed, “we felt that shot through the screen”.

Walsh (6-0, 5 KO) came to break what he believed was a curse set back in 1973, where U.S. Marine Ken Norton handed his grandfather Muhammad Ali the second loss in his career. One of Norton’s relatives was in attendance to watch the 22-yearold grandson of Ali win the rematch against Reyes Sanchez (7-3, 3 KO) in the exact same arena where the late Ken Norton broke the jaw of the late Ali.

“This was a special win because it was a rematch. It’s everything I have been working towards. My hard work is not showing in the ring,” said Ali Walsh. Right after his KO win Ali Walsh leaned over the ropes and fist bumped former world champion and now, ESPN broadcaster Timothy Bradley. “Timothy Bradley called it in the fighter’s meetings yesterday. It was a beautiful shot. It was the shot I was looking for.”

Delgado vs Aguilar

Lindolfo Delgado (16-0, 13 KO) and Omar “Pollo” Aguilar (24-1, 23 KO) came to defend their undefeated records in front of a vocal crowd who showed their tremendous support for the fighter of their choice.

Aguilar was persistent and determined in his aggression towards Delgado. Even with his own blood dripping down his face, Aguilar showed no fear in continuing his attack. From the start of the first bell, Delgado fought at a much different pace and calmer demeanor.

Although Aguilar was the busier fighter of the two, Delgado was more efficient with his punches. A right uppercut hurt Aguilar badly in the fourth round, clearly showing Delgado was the smarter of the two and that busier is not always better. Aguilar fell to the canvas in what was ruled as a slip by referee Jack Reiss.

Both fighters matched up evenly in the bout, 142 lbs in weight and exactly 5’9 in height. But Aguilar looked to be the bigger, broader fighter as Delgado deemed to be the smaller of the two.

Still, persistent in his ways Aguilar continued to move forward as he fought through a swelling right eye. Aguilar is a fighter who fell short for the first time in his career but was an exciting fighter nonetheless, he would be a great fighter to follow up on and a rematch after some much need adjustment in training would be a worthwhile fight.

Delgado won the judge’s decision with the scores of 77-75, and 79-73 twice.

Undercards

Also fighting in his hometown of San Diego, California, Austin Brooks (8-0, 2 KO) went the distance with Oliver Galicia (5-1-1, 3 KO) of Los Angeles, California in a four round junior lightweight battle. Brooks won the unanimous decision with the scores of 40-35.

Xavier Martinez (18-1, 12 KO) of Sacramento, California stopped his opponent Alejandro Guerrero (12-3, 9 KO) of Houston, Texas in the fifth round with a flurry of hard punches. The battle was to last 8 rounds in the junior lightweight fight but ended at 2:57 seconds for a KO win.

A featherweight contest was finished only 1:24 seconds in the second round after Luis Alberto “Venado” Lopez (26-2, 15 KO) destroyed his opponent, Yeison Vargas (20-11, 15 KO) with a hard liver shot.

After being shot down to the canvas himself, heavyweight Antonio “El Gigante” Mireles (5-0, 5 KO) captured a TKO win against his opponent Kaleel Carter (2-2, 2 KO) in the second round of a scheduled four round heavyweight battle.