Emanuel Navarrete Adresses Berinchyk Loss, Move to 135 & Oscar Valdez

While seeing his struggles on the scale at 130, conventional wisdom would suggest that the move to lightweight would be permanent. However, Navarrete is a proud warrior, and given that he still held the title at super featherweight, he decided to go back down to that weight class and defend it against Valdez. He heard the chatter from the press that lightweight would be his final destination, but he wasn’t so quick to agree with that narrative.

“I never said I was staying at 135 pounds”, said Navarrete. “I wanted to see how I performed at 135 and make my decision based on that. At 130, I’m the champion, and there was an opportunity to have another great fight with Oscar Valdez. After speaking to my team, we decided to come back down and defend my title at 130. Valdez is coming into this fight motivated, and we think it’s going to be a great fight. If all goes well, we will look at moving up to 135 after doing everything we need to do at 130.”

After that fight in May, Navarrete took some time off and spent it with his family in Mexico. He stayed loose in a local gym, avoiding blowing up too much in weight. Once he got the call for the Valdez fight, he knew it was time to prepare for another tough battle against a fighter known for his heart and determination. Their fight in 2023 was an all-out war, but Navarrete managed to impose his will and make it a one-sided victory. Will this fight be any different than the night of August 12, 2023?

“This one will be much harder especially with our styles and us knowing each other already from the first fight. I think this fight will be better than the first one. I’ll be looking for the knockout, which will force me to work harder.”

Although Navarrete is only 29, some fans think we might have seen the best of him and that he has topped out. For a fighter who debuted at flyweight and has competed all the way up to lightweight, maybe he has already seen his best days pass him. When confronted with the thoughts of people who have watched him throughout his career, Navarrete believes that this could be the start of his second prime and that there is still more gold to capture.

“I try my best to give it my all during every fight,” said Navarrete confidently. “At times, there are circumstances or things that can affect my performance, but those are things that can happen to anyone. This fight has motivated me to work hard during training camp and work on my body in ways I wasn’t able to in the past. This could potentially be the second prime of my career.”

Navarrete has much to prove on Saturday night, even though he has already accomplished being a three-division champion. He has to come back down in weight and repeat a dominant performance over a fighter who desperately wants to regain his position as a world champion. So what message does he want to send after it is all said and done? “I want to let everyone know that I am ready to fight the best and that the fights that remain in my career will be against the best fighters.”