Champions and stars are back this weekend, but fights for Emanuel Navarrete and Mikey Garcia are missing something

As the boxing world moves on from Tyson Fury’s incredible victory over Deontay Wilder, this weekend offers a number of solid fights which include the return of some of the sport’s bigger names.

Fight night features the second title defense for WBO featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete. His opponent is Joet Gonzalez (24-1, 14 KOS), who in 2018 took Shakur Stevenson the distance and in 2020 defeated former title contender Miguel Marriaga with a dominant performance.

Navarrete (34-1, 29 KOs) won a junior featherweight world title against Isaac Dogboe in 2018 and made five defenses before moving up to the 126-pound division. He won the then vacant featherweight title against Ruben Villa a year ago, and defended it with a 12th-round TKO victory over Christopher Diaz in April.

So, how big of a challenge is Gonzalez to a Navarrete, who hasn’t lost a fight in more than nine years?

On Saturday, super middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco returns to the ring for his third fight of 2021 to face Lucas de Abreu, an unbeaten orthodox fighter from Brazil. Abreu has 11 KOs in 12 fights, but the focus is on the 20-year-old Pacheco against this pressure fighter.

Also on Saturday, former four-division champion Mikey Garcia will fight for the first time in almost 18 months, a 10-round welterweight battle against Sandro Martin.

Garcia (40-1, 30 KOs), has only fought twice since his March 2019 decision loss to Errol Spence Jr.. He also has a decision victory over Jessie Vargas in February 2020. Martin (38-2, 13 KOs), is making his first appearance in the United States after fighting most of his career in his native country of Spain.

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