By Norm Frauenheim –
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Fighters often talk about their journey. Liam Wilson does, too, but his journey has been more than a metaphor. It’s about the miles.
Wilson has crossed the Pacific once and Atlantic twice. His training camp started at home in Australia, then moved to Washington DC, then to London, back to DC and then finally to a Phoenix suburb at an arena next door to where the Super Bowl will be staged in about 10 days.
“A ring is the same everywhere,’’ Wilson said Wednesday without a hint of jet lag.
It is.
But Wilson’s path to this one at Desert Diamond Arena crisscrossed time zones and continents, all in an attempt to upset Emanuel Navarrete, who hasn’t been beaten anywhere in more than a decade.
It started with a training camp at home in Brisbane. It continued in Washington DC for five weeks. Then, there were about 10 days in London, followed by a couple of more weeks in DC and now Arizona.
Let’s just say Liam Wilson does the road work. London wasn’t on the original itinerary. But a visa issue, he said, forced him across the pond. The issue was resolved, he says. He’s got the visa and now he intends to get a belt, the World Boxing Organization’s vacant junior-lightweight version in an ESPN fight this Friday (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. PT).
Oddsmakers don’t like his chances. Even at Aussie books, he’s down and under at about 8 1/2-to-1. In the US and UK, the odds are even more one-sided, mostly because few have seen him fight. He’s fighting for the first time in the US. Navarrete was asked Wednesday what he knew about the Aussie.
“Not much,’’ said Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs), still a featherweight champion who had initially planned to fight Oscar Valdez Jr. in his first bout at 130 pounds.
But Valdez, a former Mexican Olympian who went to school in Tucson, withdrew because of an undisclosed injury. Enter Wilson (11-1, 7 KOs), who already had his bags packed in anticipation of an American debut against Archie Sharp on the Tim Tszyu-Jermell Charlo card on Jan 28 in Las Vegas. But that date was scuttled when Charlo announced he had broken his left hand.
It all added up to opportunity for Wilson, who has shown he’s willing to go an extra mile. The odds might suggest he’s nothing more than lost baggage against Navarrete, already well-known in a boxing market dominated by Mexican-American and Mexican fans. They know who he is. Navarrete has already appeared in Arizona, blowing away Isaac Dogboe in Tucson in a May 2019 rematch.
It’s the unknown, however, that can often turn into an advantage. Navarrete concedes he won’t know much about Wilson at opening bell. But Dogboe didn’t know much about Navarrete when the Mexico City fighter surprised him, taking his junior-featherweight title in a unanimous decision in December 2019 in New York in their first fight.
Wilson, perhaps, has traveled too far not to learn everything he can about his feared foe, who still hopes for a bout against Valdez.
In part, he went to Washington DC to train because of Dogboe. The entertaining Dogboe, who calls himself The Royal Storm, has been training in a DC gym. Wilson decided to train there just to pick his brain about what to expect from Navarrete. Dogboe’s only two loses are to Navarrete, a two-division champion who hopes to become only the 10th Mexican to win a world title at a third weight
“Dogboe told me he’s dangerous,’’ said Wilson, who told his late dad that he would one day win a world title. “He told me to watch out for his lead hand and upper cut. He’s unorthodox. That’s what makes him dangerous.
“But I’m here to win. I haven’ done it yet. But I’m here, on my own journey.’’
A journey he promises to win.
