Emanuel Navarrete wants Naoya Inoue fight before moving up in weight

Junior featherweight titleholder Emanuel Navarrete (31-1, 27 KOs) is looking forward to getting back in action after a busy couple of years which saw him fight four times each.

So while Navarrete is waiting on for his next outing and training from home, the WBO champion talks about achieving a lot in a relatively short amount of time before turning his eyes towards the future where he’s targeting a ‘Monster,’ but says they’ve seen no interest from Naoya Inoue’s side:

“There is no interest from their part. He really did what he wanted at 118 and then he sent out a release saying that he was going to move up to 122, my division. When he did it, I saw the possibility of fighting him because he signed with Top Rank, but after that, he said he was going to face John Riel Casimero.”

Navarrete would continue by mentioning that if there is a possibility to fight Inoue he’d like to get on it as soon as possible because he’s already looking towards a move up in weight, and really only wants to stick around if there’s a significant fight for him at 122. But without a major opponent like Inoue, he’s eyeing the featherweight division.

“It would have to happen right away because the truth is that I’m seriously thinking of moving up to 126, and the only thing that could keep me at 122 would be a big fight against Inoue or a possible unification against one of the champions. That is the reality of why I would stay around at 122. If it’s not that way, I will move up to 126.”

At 25 years old Navarrete really made a name for himself with back-to-back wins over Isaac Dogboe — who had been on a real tear at the time. And since winning the world title off Dogboe, Navarrete has made five title defenses in short order, albeit mostly against middling-type opposition. A fight against Inoue would be easily be Navarette’s toughest opposition, especially since Inoue is viewed as a generational talent. We’ll see if Navarrete gets what he’s asking for.