By Norm Frauenheim
PHOENIX — Emanuel Navarrete arrived at a news conference without his trademark. The black cowboy hat wasn’t there. For years, it has been a symbol — defiant, ominous and a reliable indication of exactly what he intends to do.
But Thursday he just wore a simple baseball cap. He could have been just about anybody.
Of course, he isn’t. Friends and rivals still call him Vaquero, an old-school nickname that says Beware. Maybe, he just left the defining hat in his room or his bags. It’s a good bet, of course, that it’ll be there when he makes his ring entrance Saturday night for a rematch with Oscar Valdez at Footprint Center. The black hat, after all, is his identity.
Yet, there are questions just days before opening bell about exactly who he is at this stage of a whirlwind career, which includes three division titles and — for awhile — an unlimited horizon. He stormed into the sport at a get-the-hell-out-of-my-way pace, a fighter as fearless as he was impatient. But is that gunslinger still there?
The answer to that one looms as a determining factor as to whether he can score a punishing encore over Valdez, who was badly-battered in losing a one-sided decision in their first fight on a hot day in August 2023 at Desert Diamond Arena in nearby Glendale. Since that bloody drama about 16 months ago, Navarrete defended a junior-lightweight title in a narrow decision over Robson Coneicao and talked about a possible date with Shakur Stevenson. Anything looked possible.
But a jump up the scale to lightweight in a fight against Denys Berinchyk halted his momentum. He looked sluggish and fleshy in losing a split decision to Berinchyk, another prepared and skillful Ukrainian. Against Berinchyk, Navarrete looked just like another guy in a baseball cap. The loss — which cost him a fourth division title, prompted his return to junior-lightweight in another title defense in a rematch with Valdez, who is as stubbornly studious as he tenacious.
Repeatedly, Valdez has promised tactical changes in the rematch. Expect more patience from a fighter who went for broke early in the first fight and wound up broken because of it. The question is whether a return to 130 pounds is the right fit, the only fit, for Navarrete. He conceded Thursday that there have been changes.
“Everything has gone well in camp,’’ Navarrete said. “We had to make some changes, mostly because my body is not the same as it was. But everything else is good. As soon as I get to the fight location, which in this case is Phoenix, the switch is on. There will be no excuses. I’m here because I want to be.”
Valdez, who dismissed a win-or-retire narrative in an interview with Boxing Scene and The Boxing Hour at a north Phoenix gym Wednesday, suggested that Navarrete has already been thinking about retirement. Navarrete was quoted in Spanish-speaking media that he might retire after a few more fights. Connect the dots and the result is some inevitable speculation: How much has Navarrete changed? Has he hung up that black hat for good? The rematch with Valdez might be as much and opportunity to answer that question as it is a chance for Valdez to avenge a painful loss.
“This is the biggest fight of my career, because this the first time I’m fighting somebody who already beat me,’’ he said Thursday.
Translation: Valdez is seeking redemption on a night when Navarrete might be in pursuit of a restoration. He wants to prove that the black hat still fits. He’s still a Vaquero in more than just name.
“We all have worked and we have planned to put on a war together again,’’ he said. “I can’t say much more, yet I know it will be epic.”
