Close the deal

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum has got good news for top ranked Filipino super-featherweight Charly Suarez.

Top Rank, the Las Vegas-based promotional outfit the owns and runs, is determined to pit Suarez with Mexican Emanuel Navarrete in a rematch.

“As we speak, my people are in New York meeting with DAZN,” Arum told DAILY TRIBUNE on Thursday from his Las Vegas home.

Todd DuBoef, Arum’s stepson, led the Top Rank entourage during the meeting and a bit later in a press conference at Madison Square Garden.

A few days ago, Top Rank and DAZN forged a multi-year partnership that will see them do eight to ten shows a year.

“Absolutely,” Arum said when asked about the probability of the Navarrete-Suarez rematch as a part of one of the cards being discussed.

In fact, Arum, 94, is quite explicit about the rematch’s timeline.

“Immediate future,” he said.

Last week, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) issued a statement saying that the camps of Suarez and Navarrete have until the end of the month to reach a deal.

If an agreement can’t be made during the allotted time, the WBO will order a purse bid so the much-awaited bout can take place not later than the end of July.

The result of their first fight which took place in May last year in San Diego, ended in controversy.

Initially, Navarrete was declared winner by eighth-round technical decision when referee Ed Collantes ruled that a clash of heads and not a legal blow opened a nasty cut on the Mexican’s left eyebrow.

Owing to the seriousness of the cut, the fight had to be stopped and since Collantes ruled that an accidental butt caused the wound, the outcome would have to be decided by the judges’ scorecards.

At the time of the stoppage, Navarrete led on all scoresheets.

But moments later, it was proven upon a closer look on video review that Suarez’s left punch had opened the cut and he should have been the winner by technical knockout.

As a saving grace, the California State Athletic Commission change the result to a No-Contest preserving Suarez’s unbeaten win-loss record to 18-0 with ten knockouts.

Navarrete, fresh from adding the International Boxing Federation strap after stopping Eduardo Nuñez in Arizona a couple if weeks back, is also warm on the idea of granting Suarez a rematch.

Meanwhile, Suarez is back in his training base of Tagaytay City with lead trainer and former national team buddy Delfin Boholst.

The Tagaytay facility is owned by Suarez’s chief supporter, Ilocos Sur sportsman and businessman Luis “Chavit” Singson, who has appointed his close associate Ricardo Navalta to attend to the boxer’s needs.

Certainly, Arum’s latest statement is music to Suarez’s ears.