Emmanuel Navarrete set to take on Oscar Valdez for vacant WBO title, Feb. 3

It looks official. ESPN is reporting that a vacant WBO junior lightweight title fight between Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez has found a home, with the bout set to take place on Feb. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, airing on the ESPN network. And while Navarrete vs Valdez will serve as the main event, we’ll also be treated with a nice co-feature fight between Jose Pedraza and Arnold Barboza Jr.

The fight between Navarrete and Valdez will be contested to pick up the belt vacated by Shakur Stevenson after he failed to make the 130lb limit when he took on Robson Conceicao.

Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs) is most recently coming off a stoppage win over Eduardo Baez this past August which continued his hot streak — despite there being some less than stellar opposition sprinkled in during that time. As of late, however, Navarrete has been taking on much better fighters and he’ll need to come in fully prepared for what surely will be a game Oscar Valdez.

Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs) is most recently coming off a lopsided decision loss to Shakur Stevenson, in a fight where he really couldn’t get much going against the taller, technically sound fighter. Valdez will be taking on another taller, longer fighter here in Navarrete, but should have more chances as Navarrete is much more unorthodox and not as technically gifted as a fighter as Stevenson. Should be a fun one.