Emanuel Navarrete and Charly Suarez squared off in the main event at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, CA, on Saturday, May 10. The contest featured Mexico’s three-division world champion against the unbeaten contender from the Philippines. Navarrete put his WBO super featherweight title on the line, making the fourth defense of his belt.
The scheduled 12-round world championship clash didn’t go the full distance. The bout was stopped at the beginning of the eighth round on the advice of the ringside physician due to a cut the champion suffered in the sixth round. The replay didn’t clearly show whether the cut was caused by a punch or an accidental clash of heads, and the latter was ultimately ruled as the cause.
The verdict went to the scorecards, which read 78-75, 77-76, and 77-76. Navarrete was awarded the victory via technical unanimous decision.
As a result, 30-year-old Emanuel Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) retained his strap.
“It’s that warrior spirit of being a Mexican that helped us today,” Navarrete said. “I felt good, I felt strong, I felt complete. Unfortunately, what happened with the headbutt obviously it ended like that. But while we were fighting, I felt good.”
“From the first moment of the impact, I knew it was a headbutt. It split my eyebrow completely, and from the first moment I noticed it was a headbutt.”
36-year-old Charly Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) fell short in his first attempt to become champion, recording the first defeat of his career.
Suarez said, “Right now I’m sad, but that is part of the game, and I know that Navarrete won the fight, but that’s part of the game. I would like to make a rematch. I want a rematch with Navarrete.”
Among the bouts featured on the Navarrete vs Suarez undercard, Raymond Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) of West Covina, CA defeated Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to land the interim IBF lightweight title.