The experienced Brazilian Robson Conceicao landed more punches and won more rounds, but Mexican champion Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete scored two takedowns en route to a thrilling draw Thursday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Top Rank show headed by Shakur Stevenson and which was brought forward to Thursday due to the Formula 1 Grand Prix that will be held on Saturday night in Las Vegas, will not be remembered for the gray victory by decision of Stevenson over the Dominican Edwin de los Santos to continue as WBC lightweight monarch. The fight between “Vaquero” Navarrete (38-1-1) and Conceicao (17-2-1) for the WBO super featherweight crown overshadowed the main event.
While One judge saw Emanuel Navarrete as the winner 114-112, the other two scored the fight 113-113 to declare a majority tie. Real America News also scored 113-113 by virtue of the fact that the Mexican won rounds 4 and 7 by two points, in addition to dominating rounds 6, 10 and 11. Conceicao was the best in the other seven rounds, including the first three and the last.
That 12th round was dramatic, as Conceicao threw more punches than Navarrete even though he had finished the previous round very diminished, even confused about where his corner was and walking towards it with great difficulty.
Slow start by Vaquero Navarrete before two bombs
Robson Conceicao, 35, came to the fight as a victim of Emanuel Navarrete, who just in August had achieved the biggest victory of his career by beating his compatriot Óscar Valdez with authority. In betting, Navarrete was a super favorite for this Thursday (-900, meaning that to win each dollar 9 had to be risked).
But all that changed very soon when Conceicao, 2016 Olympic champion, began landing right hands in the first three rounds when the world champion fell short. in many of his blows and immediately received accurate counterblows from the challenger.
Halfway through the fourth round The 28-year-old Mexican woke up when he found an angle and unleashed an uppercut that hurt Conceicao, who shortly after put a knee on the canvas after a right. The Amazonian survived the round, avoiding another imminent fall when the bell rang. Surprisingly, he responded with a solid round 5.
Navarrete looked better in the sixth round and then in the seventh he threw a half-flying right hand towards the body, in the region of the glass. Conceicao immediately doubled over and fell for the second time. Again, he completed the round and responded greatly in rounds 8 and 9 although by then his nose was damaged and he was bleeding heavily from his mouth.
Conceicao seemed to walk knocked out almost at the end
With the fight very close on the ballots, everything was to be defined in the last quarter of the actions. Navarrete did not have his best night against an opponent who arrived in tremendous physical shape and who surpassed him in size, but the Mexican’s greater punching power became evident. and almost at the end of round 11 he put his defender against the ropes very badly. Conceicao did not know where he was at the time.
Navarrete had everything to win the fight in the 12th round, with the table apparently set for the fourth knockout of his career in that round. However, Conceicao showed a lot of heart; he threw and landed the best punches.
The draw was deserved for the challenger, who for the third time could not win the world title, but the crown goes again to Mexico with another epic performance by a fighter who was different from everyone else and who this time came out ahead despite having been outmatched for most of the 36 minutes of the fight.
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