Charly Suarez has a chance to join an elite group of Filipino boxing world champions when he challenges Emanuel Navarrete on Sunday morning.
The Philippines has produced many world boxing champions across several weight divisions, but no other division has had more Pinoy star power than 130 pounds, also known as junior lightweight or super featherweight.
Gabriel “Flash” Elorde ruled this division for seven years in the 1960s, the longest reign in division history. In 1981, Rolando Navarrete shocked the boxing world with a fifth-round knockout of reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Cornelius Boza-Edwards. And in 2008, Manny Pacquiao famously decisioned bitter rival Juan Manuel Marquez for the WBC belt. Rene Barrientos and Ben Villaflor also had their time atop the division.
On Sunday morning, Manila time, Charly Suarez of Davao del Norte will attempt to become the next Filipino champion at 130 pounds when he challenges Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico for the World Boxing Organization belt at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California.
For the unbeaten Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs), it’s an opportunity that he has waited for since turning professional in 2018 after a distinguished amateur career that saw him compete in the Rio Olympics and win a silver medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. And at 36, he knows time is not on his side.
“This is my time that I’ve been waiting for almost half of my career,” Suarez said during a press conference early Friday morning Manila time. “I prayed for this fight, and this is it.
The opportunity comes to us, comes to my team, and we grabbed it, and we don’t lose it.
“All of my amateur fights, this is my experience that I bring into the pro career, and this is it. The world title comes, so I’m ready and I’m excited for this fight this coming Saturday night.”
Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) is a three-division world champion, having also lifted at belts at 122 and 126. Three of his former victims were Filipino fighters Jhon Gemino, Mig Elorde and Jeo Santisima, all of whom were knocked out. He also holds victories over world-ranked boxers like Oscar Valdez, Robson Conceição, and Isaac Dogboe.
However, Navarrete’s last bout in San Diego, held almost a year ago also at the Pechanga Arena, did not end well as he dropped a split decision to Denys Berinchyk in an attempt to wrest the WBC lightweight belt.
“Obviously, we know what happened the last time I was in San Diego,” Navarrete said through an interpreter. “We did not get the victory. We lost against Denys Berinchyk in our attempt to win the title at 135 pounds. Now defending at 130, we want to, first of all, show people and let them know with a good performance that I’m ready to continue moving forward with my career.
“We also worked hard to give a good fight. We know that Suarez is coming for the title. And so we want it to be a good card and we want it and we want it to be a good fight so that all the people know that I’m ready, that I’m ready to retake the path, the good path of victories, at least here in San Diego with a win.”
Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank which is promoting the fight, thinks Suarez-Navarrete will produce fireworks.
“Charly Suarez has a hell of a shot with Navarrete,” Arum said during a Zoom call with Philippine media on Thursday morning. “Navarrete is a very, very exciting fighter,” Tremendous puncher. He has no style at all. He has no defense at all.
“And in Charly Suarez, he’s fighting a very disciplined fighter who’s had tremendous amateur experience. And he’s a disciplined warrior. Because as you know, he’s served time, I think he is still serving time in the Philippine military.
“So he brings discipline to the ring. And that kind of discipline performance could give Navarrete a lot of trouble.”
Arum, though, thinks that at 36, Suarez has a small window left to figure in big fights.
“At his age, he’s not a young guy winning a title. He’s a fighter that has a number of years on him. I think he has three years to fight big fights at 130 pounds and to make some really decent money and end his career on a very big, high note.
“So I don’t look at Charly Suarez as a fighter that’s going to be fighting more than five years. I think probably realistically three years after (if) he wins the title.”
How to watch Suarez-Navarrete in PH
Suarez-Navarrete is the main event of a 78-round card that Top Rank has put together. While ESPN+ will air in stateside, Filipino fans can catch all the action live on Top Rank’s new OTT streaming platform Top Rank+.
For the Philippine market, Top Rank+ will go for a monthly subscription fee of PHP279. This includes not only live streaming of this Sunday’s card but also access to Top Rank’s archive of bouts including all of Pacquiao’s and Nonito Donaire’s fights when they were still fighting under the Top Rank banner.
“I really believe there’ll be, and we have in our archives, 2,000 boxing shows,” Arum said. “And because we’ve done so many fights on the West Coast, we’ve done a number of them with Philippine fighters.
“But we’re starting our archives on this website. We start with 150 championship fights. And over the course of the year, we’ll be adding more and more fights. And it’ll all go back to when we started in 1966.”
Now that’s a lot of boxing content. But Arum is also hoping that fight fans will give Top Rank more feedback on which fights to show.
“What we hope is that when we’ve attracted fans, and they really are into this app, and they’ll be communicating with us about other fights that we have promoted that aren’t being currently offered. And within minutes or maybe hours, we’ll add those fights.
“So people, I think, remember the fights that we’ve done, maybe better than I do here. But I know there were many fights with Filipinos, other than just (Jerwin) Ancajas, Donaire, and Manny.”
The Philippine boxing scene isn’t where it was 10 or 15 years ago, but Arum is hoping that what is happening in Japan will also happen soon in the Philippines.
“Boxing hasn’t been as robust as we hoped in the Philippines,” Arum said. “But I think that when Filipinos, young Filipino fighters, when they see what’s happening in Japan, where the Japanese fighters are taking over the lighter weight divisions in the sport, and there’s so much excitement in Japan, which hasn’t always been the case, I think it bodes well for the Philippine community. And I think you’ll be seeing a lot of Filipino champions in the months and years to come.”
Hopefully, for Filipino fight fans, this starts with a victory by Charly Suarez on Sunday.
Images from Top Rank.