Emanuel Navarrete vs. Liam Wilson: LIVE updates, results, full coverage
Emanuel Navarrete stopped Liam Wilson in the ninth round to win the vacant WBO 130-pound title, giving the Mexican a major belt in a third division.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:57.
Wilson (11-2, 7 KOs) gave Navarrete (37-1, 31 KOs) more resistance than many expected from the late replacement, including a left hook that put Navarrete down and hurt him badly about two minutes into Round .4
However, the current 126-pound champ survived the rest of that round and a difficult Round 5 before he got back to business, which was to outwork and punish his opponent.
Wilson seemed to wear down — perhaps the result of Navarrete’s body work — as the end drew near.
Finally, about 20 seconds into Round 9, Navarrete put Wilson down and hurt him with straight right. Wilson got up but then endured an onslaught of hard, accurate punches that sealed his fate.
The referee stopped the fight to save Wilson from further punishment.
You can read a full report here.
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Arnold Barboza of Los Angeles defeated Puerto Rican Jose Pedraza by a unanimous decision in a 10-round bout between junior welterweight contenders.
The scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94.
Barboza (28-0, 10 KOs) outboxed and outworked the former two-division titleholder for most of the fight to claim the most significant victory over his career.
Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs) had some of his best rounds down the stretch but came up short. The 33-year-old is now 0-2-1 in his last three fights.
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Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez (5-0, 5 KOs) of Tulare, California, stopped James Bryant (6-3, 4 KOs) of Reading, Pennsylvania, after the first round of a scheduled six-round heavyweight bout.
Torrez put his opponent down and hurt him with a left uppercut in the final seconds of opening round.
Bryant got up on wobbly legs and was able to survive the round. However, his corner stopped the fight as he sat on his stool before the start of the second round.
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Junior lightweight prospect Andres Cortes (19-0, 10 KOs) of Las Vegas survived a bad cut above his left eye — the result of a clash of heads — to defeat Luis Melendez (17-3, 13 KOs) of Puerto Rico by a shutout decision in a 10-round bout.
All three judges scored it 100-90, 10 rounds to none.
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Middleweight prospect Nico Ali Walsh, the 21-year-old grandson of Muhammad Ali, defeated Eduardo Ayala by a unanimous decision in a six-round bout.
The scores were 60-53, 59-54 and 59-54, meaning two judges gave Ayala one round apiece. Walsh (8-0, 5 KOs) knocked Ayala (9-3-1, 3 KOs) down in the second round.
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Lightweight prospect Emiliano Vargas (3-0, 2 KOs) defeated Francisco Duque (1-2, 0 KOs) by a unanimous decision in a four-round bout. Vargas is the son of former 154-pound champion Fernando Vargas.
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Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico will face Liam Wilson of Australia for the vacant WBO 130-pound title tonight (Friday) at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona (ESPN, ESPN+).
Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs) currently holds the WBO 126-pound belt and is a former 122-pound champ.
Oscar Valdez was originally slated to be Navarrete’s opponent but Valdez had to pull out because of an injury. Wilson (11-1, 7 KOs) agreed to step in for what will be his first shot at a world title.
The main portion of the show is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the broadcast.
Among other featured fights on the card: Arnold Barboza Jr. vs. Jose Pedraza, junior welterweights; Andres Cortes vs. Luis Melendez, junior lightweights; and Xavier Martinez vs. Yohan Vazquez, junior lightweights.
Also, 2020 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. will face James Bryant. And middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, will take on Eduardo Ayala.
Boxing Junkie will post the result of the main event immediately afterward. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes. We’ll also post the results of other featured bouts.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the night of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
