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Emanuel Navarrete vs. Oscar Valdez is expected to be an absolute barn-burner. The two exciting Mexican fighters will be meeting in Arizona to compete for Navarrete’s WBO junior lightweight title. The 37-1 Navarrete, aka ‘Vaquero’, hasn’t lost since he was 5-0 back in 2012. Since then he’s looked unbeatable, winning the WBO junior featherweight title with a win over Isaac Dogboe in 2018 by decision and then TKO’ing him in the rematch. He defended that title five times in all before moving onto the WBO featherweight belt, which he won in 2020.
He defended that belt three times before moving up in weight again to fight for the WBO junior featherweight title in his last bout. That last bout was a ninth round TKO win over Liam Wilson.
Valdez comes into this with a 31-1 record, coming off a unanimous decision win over Adam Lopez in May. That win came after the first loss in Valdez’s career, a unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson which cost Valdez his WBC super featherweight title. Valdez won that belt off Miguel Berchett in 2021 and had defended it once (versus Robson Conceicao).
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Oscar Valdez Fight card
- – Emanuel Navarrete vs. Oscar Valdez; 12 rounds, for Navarrete’s WBO junior lightweight title
- – Raymond Muratalla vs. Diego Torres; 10 rounds, lightweights
- – Richard Torrez Jr. vs. Willie Jake Jr.; 6 rounds, heavyweights
- – Lindolfo Delgado vs. Jair Valtierra; 10 rounds, junior welterweights
- – Emiliano Vargas vs. Jorge Marquez Alvarado; 4 rounds, lightweights
- – Sergio Rodriguez vs. Eduardo Ayala; 6 rounds, super middleweights
- – Ricardo Ruvalcaba vs. Adam Kipenga; 6 rounds, junior welterweights
- – Antonio Mireles vs. Dajuan Calloway; 6 rounds, heavyweights
Start time and date
Navarrete vs. Valdez is due to go down on Saturday, August 12, 2023. The main card is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET and the main event ringwalks are expected to happen at around 11 p.m. ET.
Tickets
You can purchase tickets for this event, which takes place at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, here.
Live streams
This event will be shown on ESPN+.
A monthly subscription to ESPN+ costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. ESPN+ can also be included in The Disney Bundle with Hulu. The ad-supported version of that package is $13.99. The no-ads version is $19.99.
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