WBO super featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete 38-1-1 (31) survived a scare to retain his title by majority draw against Robson ‘Nino’ Conceição 17-2-1 (8) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday night.
“I’m happy to come away with the belt,” Navarrete said. “We both did what we said we were going to do… He’s a tremendous fighter. His technique is next level, and that’s what it makes it so hard.”
Olympic gold medalist Conceição, 35, got out of the blocks quickly in what was his third world title challenge. The busy Brazilian’s high work rate and tricky style won him the first three rounds before Mexico’s Navarrete, 28, dropped him in the fourth with a right hand to the temple. Three rounds later Conceição was down again, this time from a body shot as Navarrete took control of the fight in the middle rounds.
In a telling statistic, Conceição out-threw and out-landed Navarrete in the rounds he was on the canvas. It was going to be a long night for the champion.
Despite the tide turning against him, Conceição forced his way back into the fight in the last four rounds. He looked out on his feet in the 11th and for a time it looked like Navarrete might stop him, but the challenger sucked it up and threw everything he had at the champion in the 12th round, hitting triple figures for punches thrown in the final frame of the fight.
In the end it was the brace of knockdowns that saved Navarrete’s bacon. Judges Max DeLuca and Chris Flores both saw the bout 113-113, while judge Don Trella had it marginally wider at 114-112 in favour of Navarrete.
“The decision is well-deserved. Robson is a great fighter. He left his heart in the ring,” Navarrete said.
“There were some details with regard to technique, but we accomplished what we said we would do. We gave a great show for the fans. And, at least, I am very happy to come away with the title.
“He deserves the rematch, but that decision doesn’t depend 100 percent on me. But if it does happen, I would train even better. He knows how I fight and I know how he fights, so it would make for an excellent fight.”
CompuBox had Conceição out-throwing Navarrete in every round – doubling his output in the seventh, eighth and 12th – and out-landing him in every round except the 11th. Conceição held an advantage of 852 to 487 in punches thrown and 213 to 116 in punches landed across the 12-round contest.
“It was a hard fight. He is very strong. It was a difficult. But I know what I did tonight,” Conceição said.
“It was a good fight. It deserves a rematch. If we do get the rematch, we will both train harder and will give an even better fight.”
