Emanuel Mavarrete defends his WBO super featherweight title tonight against his #1 contender, Charly Suarez, in the main event in San Diego. Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) will make his fourth defense of his WBO 130-lb belt against Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at the Pechanga Arena.
The card will be live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10:00 PM ET | 7:00 PM PT tonight. The estimated ring walk time for Navarrete’s fight with Suarez is 11:00 p.m. ET. The preliminary card starts at 5:30 PM ET / 2:30 PM PT.
Main Event Preview: Navarrete vs. Suarez
Given Suarez’s weak resume, there hasn’t been much buzz for Navarrete’s fight tonight. Fans aren’t familiar with Suarez because he has not beaten any notable opposition during his six-year pro career. He’s not young at 36 to have such a barren resume. On paper, Suarez is easily the weakest contender that Navarrete will have defended his title against since he captured it in
Main Card on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Charly Suarez
Raymond Muratalla vs. Zaur Abdullaev
Giovani Santillan vs. Angel Beltran
Andres Cortes vs. Salvador Jimenez
Albert Gonzalez vs. Jose Guardado
Prelims at 5:30 pm ET / 2:30 pm PT on ESPN+
Alan Garcia vs. Cristian Medina
Sebastian Hernandez Reyes vs. Azat Hovhannisyan
Samuel Contreras vs. Dyllon Cervantes Alvarado
Perla Bazaldua vs. Mona Ward
Fans would have preferred that Navarrete defend against one of the talented and younger contenders rather than milking his title with another weak opponent. In Navarrete’s last fight, he fought a needless rematch against Oscar Valdez last December after shutting him out in a one-sided 12-round decision in 2023.
Co-Main Event: Muratalla vs. Abdullaev
People seem most interested in this card’s fight, the chief support bout between lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) and Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs). They’ll be fighting for the vacant IBF interim 135-lb title. Muratalla is favored to win that clash and then potentially be elevated to the full IBF lightweight champion status if Vasily Lomachenko doesn’t return from his leave of absence to defend against him.
It’s understandable why Navarrete, 30, has chosen to hold onto the WBO 130-lb title rather than go after the other belts at super featherweight. The World Boxing Organization’s ranking of contenders is one of the weakest of the four sanctioning bodies.
The WBO’s rankings appear upside down, with the beatable, soft contenders at the top and the talented, dangerous ones rated below. It’s an ideal situation for a flawed champion like Navarrete to hold onto his title longer than he usually would. The WBO has Raymond Ford ranked #7 and Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez rated #9. Those two are Navarrete’s biggest threats to his reign, but they’re ranked low by the WBO for some reason.
Last Updated on 05/10/2025
