Emanuel Navarrete vs Oscar Valdez 2

 

 

When Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez, two Mexican fighters battle, you can rest assured that it will be a good fight. Emanuel Navarrete is 38-2-1 with 31 KOs, a 3-division world champion. Oscar Valdez is 32-2 with 24 KOs.

 

This is a rematch of their August 12, 2023, fight in which Emanuel Navarrete won unanimously. In that fight, he threw a lot of punches while keeping a fair distance from his opponent. He used his 6-inch reach advantage, throwing jabs, hooks, and uppercuts to Valdez’s face, which eventually became swollen by the mere volume of punches thrown onto his face.

 

While Valdez did hold his own, he seemed to have a difficult time dealing with the difference in reach. He almost had to lean forward to compensate for the disadvantage.

Navarrete ended up hurting his right hand, enabling Valdez to corner him on the ropes plenty of times. There was a moment in the 10th round when Navarrete was in trouble, leaving me to think that Valdez was going to win the fight; however, Navarrete didn’t fall for it. He kept his cool and continued to fight his fight, responding with a great 11th round. When you make the great Marco Antonio Barrera stand up and clap his hands, you know you did well.

 

By then, Valdez’s right eye appeared to be completely closed. This allowed Navarrete to establish himself to win the round, but Valdez still had some fight left in him.

 

Despite agreeing with the unanimous decision, the judge who scored the fight 116-112 was the only one I agreed with. The 119-109 and 118-110 were just too far off. Though Navarrete threw 1,038 punches, he only landed 216 punches with a 21% accuracy rate, while Valdez, who threw only 436 punches, landed 140 punches, a percentage rate of 32%. Navarrete won the fight clearly, but the 119-109 score was too far off. But then again, that’s my opinion.

 

Rematches are always tough to predict because the two fighters are already well acquainted with one another on the right. They have a platform for how to adjust and where to adjust.

 

Then, we have to look at their normal habits spanning several fights. Historically, Navarrete throws a bunch of punches—roughly 70+ punches a round. He simply overwhelms his opponents with sheer activity. His opponent is also known for his high punch output, which kind of sums up just how many more punches Navarrete throws.

 

The eye injury Valdez suffered in the first fight must have had some effect on how he fought in later rounds. He became hesitant to take the initiative, although it may have seemed he wasn’t.

 

On December 7th, 2024, the two men will once again fight each other. Pending Valdez doesn’t suffer the same eye injury he did in the first fight, he will give Navarrete a better fight. And pending that Navarrete doesn’t suffer the same arm injury, he will have more power on that right hand, which could be trouble for Valdez. With that in mind, I still find it very difficult to imagine that the second fight will be any different result-wise. Therefore, I would have to conclude that Navarrete will most likely win another decision.