Navarrete retains 130 title vs. Suarez via controversial head-butt call
Slugfest ends in technical decision although eventual replay shows a punch caused fight-ending cut; Muratalla routs Abdullaev to claim interim 135 belt
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Emanuel Navarrete, who was defending the WBO junior lightweight title for the fourth time, and Charly Suarez were locked in a fierce fight in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card when Navarrete emerged from an exchange in the sixth round with a horrendous gash over his left eye on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
Was the cut caused by a punch or a head butt? That was the critical question and cause for the controversy that now engulfs the fight.
Referee Edward Collantes ruled the cut was caused by an accidental head butt and California State Athletic Commission replay official Jack Reiss, the recently retired referee, could find no definitive evidence to the contrary in any of the replays offered to him from ESPN’s production truck. Those replays showed Suarez’s left hand landing on the spot of the cut followed by their heads coming together but nothing conclusive as to the cause of the cut. So, like in other sports that use replay, the referee’s call would stand.
When Collantes eventually stopped the fight 1 second into the eighth round upon the recommendation of Dr. Robert Ruelaz, the ringside physician, the matter was sent to the scorecards for a technical decision. Navarrete won 78-75, 77-76 and 77-76 to retain the title, at least for now.
After the decision was rendered, post-fight interviews had been conducted and the ESPN broadcast ended, the ESPN production team continued to go through various angles and footage from its 15 cameras while the ESPN+ post-fight show was still streaming.
They came up with an angle, which they zoomed in on, and it showed definitively Suarez’s left catching Navarrete on the eye and then blood immediately appearing before their heads came together.
Had the cut been ruled to have been caused by the punch, Suarez would have been declared the winner by knockout and claimed the 130-pound world title.
Suarez has five days to file a protest with the commission and Carl Moretti, the vice president of Top Rank, which promotes both fighters, told Fight Freaks Unite that the commission and the WBO would review the fight next week. There is a strong chance the commission will change the result to a no contest and that the WBO will order a rematch.