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Berchelt vs Vargas II: Pros react to wins by Miguel Berchelt and Emmanuel Navarrete

Miguel Berchelt and Emanuel Navarrete repeated on Saturday, retaining their world titles.

Mikey Williams/Top Rank
Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

Miguel Berchelt and Emanuel Navarrete both retained their world titles on Saturday night in Arizona, live on ESPN, and both did so by stoppage, dominating their opponents.

Berchelt repeated his 2017 win over Francisco Vargas, retaining the WBC 130-pound title via stoppage after six rounds when trainer Joel Diaz stopped the fight in Vargas’ corner. And Navarrete was again just physically too big and strong for Isaac Dogboe, overwhelming him and stopping the Ghanaian in the 12th round.

Neither outcome was unexpected — Berchelt was a strong favorite, Navarrete a marginal favorite — but both fights had plenty of shots landed, plenty of action, and a lot of grit from challengers who refused to give in against the odds and in the face of a beating. These weren’t Fight of the Year type bouts, because they just didn’t have the two-way action needed for that, but good action fights all the same.

Here’s what some boxing pros had to say about the fights during and after the fights from Tucson.

Berchelt-Vargas II

Navarrete-Dogboe II

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