Australian Liam Wilson labelled Emanuel Navarrete a “weight bully” ahead of his clash with the undefeated Mexican for the vacant WBO junior lightweight world title in Phoenix, Arizona.
Navarrete is the reigning WBO featherweight champ and has won 30 straight fights over a 10-year period, amassing 30 career knockouts.
Wilson goes into the bout as a massive outsider with some betting agencies pricing him at around $9 to win.
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The Mexican champion is moving up in weight to try and snatch the vacant belt and become just the 10th Mexican in history to claim world titles across three weight divisions.
Yet Wilson has a six-centimetre height advantage against the champion, who has yet to vacate his WBO featherweight title, which he has defended three times after defeating Ruben Villa in October 2020.
The junior lightweight belt was made available after Shakur Stevenson failed to make weight in his last clash at 130lbs before moving up to lightweight.
Wilson added credence to talk in boxing circles that the Mexican is too big for his weight class and should have moved up earlier in his journey.
”Navarrete is a weight bully,” Wilson said at a press conference on Thursday morning.
“Throughout his career, he has fought guys smaller than him in smaller divisions, but for the first time he is stepping up into this (super featherweight) division and I think it’s too far of a leap.
“I come to bring the pain.
“I know I am the underdog and I can’t blame that. I’m 11-1 and he is 36-1, statistics don’t lie, but I’ve come here to cause an upset and bring a halt to his plan of being a three-division world champion.
“Navarrete is a great champion, but I am hungry and I worked my arse off for this.
“I plan on giving him the fight of his life … I am going to win.”
Wilson has beaten two top-10 opponents, Matias Rueda and Joe Noynay, in the past nine months.
Navarrete was denied a chance to unify the featherweight division, which led to him considering a move up in weight.
Even if he wins this weekend, he will have 10 days to decide which weight class he wants to compete in and defeat could also see him stripped of his current featherweight crown.
“After this fight, we will see how I feel,” Navarrete told Boxingscene.
“Right now, with the hard work we’ve put in, making 130 won’t be a problem and I feel like I can still make 126. Let’s see how things go in this fight.
“God willing we get the win and become WBO [130-pound] champion, then we will decide whether to stay and defend that title or give it up and return to 126 where I am still the champion.”
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