Emanuel Navarrete continues to put busy back in the game, closing out one year with his fifth fight within 12 months on a furious pace that has taken him from anonymity to emerging stardom.
What’s next?
More of the same, says Navarrete, a junior featherweight who is as ambitious as he is inexhaustible.
Moments after he scored a fourth-round stoppage of Francisco Horta on Saturday night in Puebla, Mexico, Navarrete was already thinking about next year, a New Year on the calendar and an extension of the momentum he created for himself in 2019.
He won four-title defenses after his upset of Isaac Dogboe last Dec. 8 in New York. After taking the title from Dogboe, he fought once in spring, twice in summer and once in winter. He missed autumn, but maybe that’s one of his resolutions for 2020. He has as many fights in him as there are seasons.
“I want to continue improving,’’ Navarrete (30-1, 26 KOs) said after he overcame a slow start and overwhelmed Horta (20-3-1, 10 KOs), a fellow Mexican, with a blitz of punches from virtually every angle for a TKO victory at 2:09 of the fourth.
Options are plentiful.
At 5-foot-7, the 24-year-old Navarrete has talked about moving up to featherweight. But he has also been mentioned as a possibility for Naoya Inoue, a pound-for-pound contender and a unified bantamweight champion after his decision over Nonito Donaire on Nov. 7 in Japan. The deal would be easy to make. Both are aligned with Top Rank, which signed Inoue last month.
Navarrete also has said he wants to unify the 122-pound title. That appears to be the immediate plan. Top Rank’s Bob Arum has talked about Rey Vargas and Daniel Roman, both belt-holders. Vargas is tied to Golden Boy Promotions. Roman has a deal with Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn.
“2020 will be even better,’’ Navarrete said.
Maybe even busier, too.
On the Navarrete-Horta undercard, Filipino left-hander Jerwin Ancajas (32-1-2, 22 KOs) continued his junior bantamweight reign, winning his eighth successive title defense with a sixth-round stoppage of Miguel Gonzalez (31-2, 8 KOs).
“I want to unify titles,” said Ancajas, who hopes for a shot at Juan Francisco Estrada in 2020.
In the opening bout on the ESPN+ telecast, featherweight and lightweight title challenger Miguel Marriaga (29-3, 24 KOs) of Colombia overcame some rocky moments in the early rounds for a sixth-round stoppage of Mexican Alfredo Meija (14-3-3, 5 KOs).
