By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
WBO featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete (35-1, 29 KOs) scored a hard fought twelve round unanimous decision over Joet Gonzalez (24-2, 14 KOs) on Friday night at the Pechanga Aren, San Diego, California. Brutal fight, Navarrete just had too much firepower and busted up the very game Gonzalez. Scores were 118-110, 116-112, 116-112.
The action began right away as Navarrete and Gonzalez exchanged in the opening round. Navarrete attacked connecting with a left hook as Gonzalez suffered a nasty cut underneath his right eye above the cheek in round three. The champ boxed and targeted Gonzalez’s cut in round four following up with big shots, despite the cut Gonzalez kept coming.
Gonzalez’s eye got nastier heading into the fifth, Navarrete attacked. In the sixth, Gonzalez was the one attacking as Navarrete countered. The eye kept getting worse for Gonzalez in the seventh, but he kept fighting on, momentarily staggering Navarrete but the champ’s offensive power was too much as he kept connecting Gonzalez. Navarrete tripped to start the eighth as he jabbed away, Gonzalez attacked pressuring the champ as the two finished the round trading.
The pressure continued from Gonzalez in the ninth as he kept coming, Navarrete stood in there mixing it up in a non-stop round. Off to a wild start in the tenth, Gonzalez hit Navarrete with a low blow as the referee Ray Corona issued a warning, the two continued to trade away as Gonzalez with his face grotesque kept coming. The championship rounds were all offense, Navarrete let his hands go but Gonzalez was taking not taking no for an answer kept coming. The twelfth and final round, Gonzalez stalked as Navarrete threw bombs, neither fighter took a step back as everyone was on their feet for the final bell.
Love watching Navarrete. Shocked that Gonzalez was able to stand up to those punches. They sounded very hard. He gave it his all and deserves respect but no chance Gonzalez won. The announcers were horrible as usual. You don’t get points because you have a busted up face and are good at taking a beating. They said they had 7 rounds that could go either way. Come on. Where’s Teddy Atlas? At least he tells the truth. Probably why he’s not around anymore.
I agree. I had it 119-109. Yes I can see where it could be closer but Navarrette threw and landed more punches each round. So when the announcer complained about the 118-110 score I would like him to point out how many rounds did Gonzalez win definitively. IMO they would be hard to find.
Navarette should not be in that smaller division, he is so much bigger than those fighters what a joke he is.
Well, as long as he makes the weight, why not ? Unlike Luis Nery who was always missing weight and still was allowed to fight. He was bulliying all the fighters at 118 pounds.
Navarrete is so much bigger than the the fighters he beats, he doesn’t belong in that division, why don’t he move up instead of ruining the careers of those smaller fighters. Better than that why do they allow him to do that???
In boxing, both amateur and professional, I suggest the judges score the bout as follows 1. Effective hard punches with knockdown—1 to 5 points, 2. Effective jabs, light punches–1 to 3 points, 3. Aggressiveness–o to 2 points. This is a total of 10 points per round. It is easier to compute by the judges and be understood by the audience.