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Emanuel Navarrete vs Charly Suarez Keys to Victory: Breaking down tactics of each fighter
Three-division world champion Emanuel Navarrete ended last year with an exclamation point.
Now, "Vaquero" will look to keep the highlights coming when he defends his WBO junior lightweight world championship against Charly Suarez at Pechanga Arena San Diego on Saturday night.
Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) is coming off an explosive sixth-round TKO win over a gritty Oscar Valdez in December.
He will clash with a hard-hitting undefeated Filipino fighter in Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) who bashed Jorge Castaneda in three rounds in September.
Will Navarrete, 30, piece together another raucous title defense? Or will the 36-year-old Suarez become world champion in an upset?
Emanuel Navarrete’s keys to victory
Pressure
Pressure — it is one of Navarrete’s fighting traits that define the three-division world champion best.
The Mexican warrior is willing to step through punches if it means walking down his opponent with pressure and we will find out if Suarez’ power makes the WBO junior lightweight titleholder change that approach at all.
Turn the volume up
Another penchant that has been synonymous through Navarrete’s career is his ability to drive his punch numbers way up by letting his hands fly.
Simply put: He overwhelms most of the opponents he shares a ring with. His December rematch with Oscar Valdez where he stopped his fellow Mexican in the sixth round serves as his latest sampling of just that.
Now knocking on the door of his 40th professional victory, Navarrete is certain to bring pressure and dial his output up.
Have bursts of combinations
Once Navarrete lands a shot flush, he is going to piece it together with combinations that come at an incessant pace.
It is precisely how “Vaquero” became the first man to stop Valdez, drowning him out with punches to force the sixth-round TKO.
Suarez counterpunching in traffic to end this downpour might be the only solution, though even then, Navarrete is likely to keep stringing together punches.
Charly Suarez’s keys to victory
Use Navarrete’s pressure against him
Navarrete remaining on the front foot and pressuring ahead can keep Suarez on the back foot where he could potshot the WBO junior lightweight world champion.
Doing this with stiff punches would help to disrupt Navarrete’s forward progress and possibly force the titleholder to reset his offense.
Catch Navarrete in traffic
As aforementioned, as a pressuring Navarrete throws hands fighting forward, Suarez’ ability to hang tough in the pocket and counterpunch with “Vaquero” in traffic could spell the difference between a new champ being crowned or not.
Step on the gas
Suarez, who is six years Navarrete’s senior, has got to step on the gas when successful to build on his momentum and possibly force “Vaquero” to his limits.
This means, when catching Navarrete with a clean potshot or in traffic, more punches have to follow.
He is not the kind of volume puncher that Navarrete is, but the Filipino fighter must increase his output.
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