Reigning WBO junior lightweight champion Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KO) will defend his title against undefeated Filipino contender Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KO) in the main event of Saturday night’s biggest boxing draw.
Here is a look at the viewing information.
- Date: Saturday, May 10
- Main Card Start Time: 10 p.m. ET
- Main Event Ring Walks (approx.): 1 a.m. ET
- Preliminary Card Start Time: 5:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California
- TV/Stream: The event will be broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+
Navarrete is probably the most underrated champion in the sport. Despite his stellar record and tendency to put on exciting fights, he’s never mentioned as one of the pound-for-pound best in the sport.
In his last fight, Navarrete broke down and stopped Oscar Valdez in December 2024.
Suarez, 36, earned a stoppage victory over Jorge Castaneda in his last fight back in September 2024 to set up this championship opportunity. Despite his age, Saturday’s clash with Navarrete will be Suarez’s first opportunity to win a world title.
While Navarrete-Suarez is the main event, there is an intriguing lightweight battle on tap in the co-main event for a vacant title at 135 pounds.
Here is a look at the entire fight card:
- Main Event: Emanuel Navarrete vs. Charly Suarez – 12 rounds, WBO Junior Lightweight Title
- Co-Main Event: Raymond Muratalla vs. Zaur Abdullaev – 12 rounds, vacant IBF Interim Lightweight Title
- Andres Cortes vs. Salvador Jimenez – 10 rounds, Super Featherweight
- Giovani Santillan vs. Angel Beltran – 10 rounds, Welterweight
- Albert Gonzalez vs. Jose Guardado – 10 rounds, Featherweight
- Alan Garcia vs. Cristian Medina Garcia – 8 rounds, Lightweight
- Sebastian Hernandez vs. Azat Hovhannisyan – 8 rounds, Super Bantamweight
- Perla Bazaldua vs. Mona Ward – 4 rounds, Female Super Flyweight
- Sammy Contreras vs. Dyllon Cervantes Alvarado – 4 rounds, Super Lightweight
The co-main event clash between Muratalla and Abdullaev will determine the interim IBF champion and the No. 1 contender for Vasyl Lomachenko. The Ukrainian legend will have been inactive for almost a year to the day when Muratalla and Abdullaev fight.
Lomachenko won the vacant IBF title when he scored an 11th-round TKO victory over George Kambosos Jr. on May 12, 2024. Lomachenko was supposed to fight Gervonta Davis in a unification bout late last year, but the former pulled out, which led the latter to fight Lamont Roach Jr. in March in a fight that wound up a draw.
The winner of Muratalla-Abdullaev is likely a much easier unification bout to make for the winner of Davis-Roach—unless they wind up having a trilogy. In any case, Muratalla-Abdullaev could be set for a war.
Muratalla is an undefeated (22-0, 17 KO) power-punching slugger who hails from Fontana, California, so he will definitely have the fans behind him against Abdullaev. The 31-year-old Abdullaev is 20-1 with 12 KOs. The Russian’s only loss came to Devin Haney in September 2019.
While neither man has what we might consider a marquee name, don’t be surprised if the co-main event presents a memorable scrap for a vacant title and the next opponent for the winner of Davis-Roach.
Be on the lookout for live results covering the entire televised card for those who will be unable to watch it live.
