NARVAEZ RETURNS AS SUPER-FLYWEIGHT TO DEFEND HIS TITLE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 20 Apr 2012
After his initial foray into the bantamweight division where he faced Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire and lost every round in a less than entertaining title fight at the Theater in Madison Square Garden, New York on October 22, 2011, former two division WBO world champion Omar Andres ?Hurricane? Narvaez has decided to return to the super flyweight division.
Narvaez defends his WBO 115 pound title in Argentina this Sunday, Manila Time, against 25 year old Jose ?Matador? Cabrera of Mexico who has a record of 20-2-2 with 8 knockouts.
The fight will take place in San Juan, Argentina.
Narvaez, the veteran southpaw with a record of 35-1-1 with 19 knockouts who has had a total of 15 successful title defenses of the flyweight crown and 3 successful defenses of his super flyweight title is expected to be too experienced for Cabrera.
However, Cabrera is several years younger than Narvaez and has lost only once by knockout which was at the hands of South Africa?s Lubabalo Msuthu in November 2008 when he was dropped in round seven. Since then Cabrera has won seven straight fights but only managed a draw in his clash with Daniel Rosas for the WBO Interim title in October last year which ended in a draw.
While age could be a serious factor against Narvaez the fact that he has dominated the flyweight and super flyweight divisions and will be fighting in his hometown should help the champion.
In a pre-fight press conference which was marked by very little rhetoric Narvaez said ?This will be a great battle in which two great warriors will come out with everything in the ring? while Cabrera said ?It gives me great pride to face a boxing figure such as Omar Narvaez.?
The 36 year old Narvaez moved up in weight and won the vacant super flyweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Everth Briceno of Nicaragua who was deducted a point in each of rounds 5, 8 and 11 by referee Luis Pabon in what was described as ?a messy fight.?
The last defense of Narvaez was against William Urina when he won a unanimous twelve round decision on June 11, 2011 before moving up in weight to face Donaire and losing on the scorecards of all three judges by a 120-108 shutout.
Narvaez had previously won the WBO flyweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Adonis Rivas of Nicaragua whom he dropped in the 7th round en route to victory on July 13, 2002..
He won a unanimous twelve round decision in a title defense against Filipino Rexon Flores on August 5, 2006 in which one judge scored it a shutout and the two others gave Flores one round in a fight that was telecast by Vintage Sports and was much closer than the scorecards indicated although Narvaez clearly won the fight.
Narvaez also defended his title against countryman Luis Lazarte who was disqualified in the 10th round. Lazarte is the fighter who lost by a 10th round TKO to Johnriel Casimero of the Philippines in an Interim title fight marred by a post-fight riot which resulted in Lazarte?s suspension.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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