Emanuel Navarrete Could Be A 4-Weight World Champion As Mexican Star Ordered To Fight For Vacant WBO Lightweight Title

Emanuel Navarrete Could Be A 4-Weight World Champion As Mexican Star Ordered To Fight For Vacant WBO Lightweight Title

Emanuel Navarrete could be boxing’s next four-weight world champion.

The all-action Mexican Navarrete (38-1-1, 31 KOs) has been officially ordered to fight Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk (18-0, 9 KOs) for the vacant WBO Lightweight title.

The strap was relinquished by Devin Haney as the P4P star has now moved up to super lightweight where he holds the WBC championship.

Navarrete currently owns the WBO title at super featherweight, a belt he won in a fight of the year contender with Liam Wilson in early 2023, having made two successful defences later that year – a twelve-round decision win with Oscar Valdez and a draw with Robson Conceicao.

The 29-year-old previously won belts at featherweight and super bantamweight.

Berinchyk has long been highly ranked in the WBO and his last two outings have helped him gain exposure alongside his talent.

The Ukrainian scored points wins over Yvan Mendy on the Tyson Fury-Derek Chisora 3 PPV undercard and Anthony Yigit on the Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel Dubois card.

WBO Letter Ordering Emanuel Navarrete vs Denys Berinchyk

The WBO officially ordered the fight today via a letter sent to Bob Arum’s Top Rank, who represents Navarrete and Alex Krassuk’s K2 Promotions, who are the promoters for Berinchyk.

“Please be advised that the WBO World Championship Committee hereby orders the commencement of negotiations for the subject matter bout. The parties herein are granted 15 days upon notice of this order to reach an agreement. If an accord is not reached within the time frame outlined herein, purse bid procedures will be ordered pursuant to WBO Regulations of World Championship Contests.”

“The minimum acceptable bid for the WBO Lightweight Division is $150,000.00 (One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars). Any of the parties involved may request a purse bid ceremony at any time during the negotiation process.”

“Lastly, this Committee reserves the right to issue any further rulings deemed necessary, helpful, and convenient to accomplish the purposes, policies, and intent of the WBO rules, including, but not limited to rendering all rulings necessary to serve the best interests in the sport of professional boxing and the WBO Lightweight Division.”

Shakur Stevenson’s Reaction

For an unknown reason, WBC 135-pound titleist Shakur Stevenson wasn’t very happy with this news.

He reacted to this portal breaking the news with a quote tweet, “This is sickening.. Shit is Disgusting my ni**a!”.

This was followed up by Stevenson announcing his retirement from boxing, “I’m officially retiring from the sport of boxing I’ll be in the gym forever perfecting my craft and helping the next generation become great and chase they dreams but I ain’t fw this weak boxing game”

By Darshan Desai

Image: Mikey Williams/Top Rank