Jose Navarro Wants a Reason to Celebrate During Mexican Independence Day Weekend

Added on Sep 15, 2010 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

As with every year, the weekend commemorating Mexico’s Independence Day is not only a significant time for the Mexican poplulation, but it’s always a big weekend for fight fans as well. Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has taken center-stage to present the highly publicized battle of L.A. fighters in “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora on Saturday night at the Staples Center.

Not long after Mosley and Mora tip the scales on Friday another fight card promoted by De La Hoya will get underway at an outdoor venue right near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The Tecate Cerveza sponsored event will kick off Golden Boy’s two-day “Fiesta de la Independencia” event commemorating the Mexican Bicentennial and will be televised on the Telefutura network.

Friday nights outdoor event features 2000 United States Olympian, Jose Navarro, as he takes on the highly touted Nestor Rocha in an eight round bantamweight bout. In other action lightweight prospect Luis Ramos, Jr. takes on former IBF featherweight champion Erik Aiken of Washington D.C. Fans that attend the event will also witness Golden Boy Promotion’s newly acquired and first ever Canadian fighter, Mikael Zewski, as he makes his debut under De La Hoya’s promotional firm in a four round junior middleweight bout against Gerardo Melendrez.

Following his 2000 Olympic bid, Navarro (27-5, 12 KOs) turned pro and made his flyweight debut which resulted in a four round unanimous decision against Kenny Berrios at the Madison Square Garden. Despite the win, Navarro and his team ultimately decided that he would be better suited in the junior bantamweight division where he reeled off 21 consecutive wins while picking up a few regional titles along the way. His impressive win streak would come to a halt as he attempted to capture the WBC’s junior bantamweight crown in mid 2003 when Masamori Tokuyama unanimously outpointed Navarro in the Yokohama Arena in Tokuyama’s native Japan.

Since then Navarro has yet to capture the consistent wins that he notched earlier on in his career. Despite his up and down performances Navarro worked his way into another title shot in 2007 against Dmitry Kirillov. Much like his first attempt at a world title, Navarro came up a bit short on the scorecards as a third round knockdown came back to haunt him and kept him from picking up the IBF jr. bantamweight strap.

Despite the loss, Navarro’s stock was hot and was immediately given a crack at then-WBC king Christian Mijares. Somehow judge Doug Tucker had Navarro pitching a 12 round shutout while the other two judges scored it in favor of the champion, Mijares. Navarro found himself out of options in the junior bantamweight division and after suffering back to back defeats for the first time as a pro, Navarro decided it was once again time to move up in weight and became a full fledged bantamweight in October of last year.

Hard times would prove to follow Navarro into his new weight class where the Filipino veteran Michael Domingo, who isn’t known for his punching power, TKO’d Navarro in the eighth stanza of their scheduled 10 rounder.

Navarro, who was once viewed as a can’t miss prospect was finally turn things around earlier this year and ended a three year winless drought against Benjamin Garcia at Club Nokia in his hometown of Los Angeles. He looks to keep his momentum going as he return to the squared circle in the City of Angels against the impressive Nestor Rocha.

Both Navarro and Rocha share a common opponent in Garcia. Two months after Navarro outpointed him, Garcia was sent back to Club Nokia to serve as an opponent for Rocha. Rocha had a made quick work of Garcia as he stopped him via TKO in the second round. It was a nice way to boost Rocha’s confidence as he was coming off of a devastating first round knockout loss to WBC Bantamweight Champion Hozumi Hasegawa.

Navarro, who is of Mexican descent, will undoubtedly take part in the Mexican Independence Day festivities that will going on throughout his home of Los Angeles this weekend in one way or another.

He’s just hoping he can do so on the heels of a victory inside the ring on Friday night.