Suarez awaits verdict on appeal of May 11 loss
Just days removed from a contentious end to his bid to take the World Boxing Organization junior lightweight crown, Charly Suarez was surprisingly composed.
The Olympian from Davao del Norte, speaking to Filipino reporters in person for the first time since his loss to Emanuel Navarrete in the US, was even gracious as his team awaits the final decision on an appeal they filed after the controversial ending to their May 11 fight.
A decision is expected to be made official on June 2, which will be key in defining the career of Suarez, who is entering what many would easily regard as the tail end of a boxer’s prime years. At 36, the bemedalled former national boxer’s window to win his first-ever world title as a pro is getting narrower by the month.
Edward Collantes, who refereed the title clash at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, stopped the fight just before the eighth round due to a cut on the champion Navarrete’s forehead. Replays later showed that Suarez actually caught the Mexican with a crisp left during the sixth, which could’ve been enough reason to prompt a stoppage that would’ve crowned Suarez as the new king.
And Suarez said that should the result be overturned, he would gladly give Navarrete a rematch.
“It was fun. I actually enjoyed it,” Suarez said during a lunch organized by his handler, Chavit Singson. “If ever I get the world title, I’d also still give him the rematch because the fight was really that good.”
Should the California State Athletic Commission rule the fight as No-Contest, though, a rematch is likely going to be held immediately—something the WBO and its president, Gustavo Olivieri, is leaning towards, according to online reports.
Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti, as soon as the replays made the rounds on social media, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Deserved rematch to come.”
