Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico going to face Liam Wilson of Australia for the vacant 130-pound WBO title tonight (Friday) at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona (ESPN, ESPN+).
Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs) currently holds the 126-pound WBO belt and is a former 122-pound champion.
Oscar Valdez was initially expected to be Navarrete’s opponent but Valdez had to withdraw due to injury. Wilson (11-1, 7 KOs) agreed to participate as it would be his first hit at a world title.
The main part of the show is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the broadcast.
Among other matches featured on the card: Arnold Barboza Jr. against Jose Pedraza, junior weight class; Andres Cortes vs Luis Melendez, junior lightweight; and Xavier Martinez versus Yohan Vazquez, junior lightweight.
In addition, 2020 Olympic super-heavyweight silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. will face James Bryant. And middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, grandson of Muhammad Ali, will fight Eduardo Ayala.
Boxing Junkie will post the results of the main event shortly after. Just come back to this post and refresh when the time comes. We will also post the results of other featured matches.
Full news – a battle story, photo gallery and analysis – will be posted in separate posts on the night of the battle and the following day.
Enjoy the battle!
