Keeping the faith

The camp of Charly Suarez remains hopeful that the promised shot at Emanuel Navarrete’s world title will happen as scheduled.

“It’s not official yet, but Charly will fight for a world title,” declared the Filipino’s American-Uruguayan promoter Sampson Lewcowicz.

Reports from the United States say that Navarrete will put his World Boxing Organization (WBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-featherweight crowns in October in Texas.

Even the fighter’s manager and lead trainer Delfin Boholst had to postpone a planned meeting with the Games and Amusements Board late last week to seek help amid reports that Navarrete is moving towards a second straight unification bout, this time against O’Shaquie Foster, holder of the World Boxing Council 130-pound jewels.

“I was advised (by Lewcowicz) to wait until this coming week,” Boholst said.

Suarez, who turns 38 on 14 August, has been the IBF’s mandatory challenger the last 12 months and is already in Las Vegas in training mode.

Navarrete had been allowed to do one unification match and it took place early this year when he added the IBF strap after beating fellow Mexican Eduardo Nunez in Phoenix, Arizona.

He was permitted to engage in that bout since, under the rules, a unification fight supersedes a mandatory defense.

But Suarez’s camp is not cooperating this time even though he had proposed that Navarrete vacate the WBO throne so he could fight to fill in the void when the boxing body pits him with the next leading available contender.

However, this is exactly the reason why Navarrete is keen on meeting Foster because he wants to unify all the four belts in the division and become undisputed champion.

Last time he saw action, Suarez needed less than a round to destroy Manuel Avila last month in San Bernardino, California.

He had to take that risk for fear that he might lose his grip on the No. 1 spot in the WBO.

Suarez became Navarrete’s mandatory challenger on the strength of his solid showing against the wild-swinging Mexican more than a year ago in San Diego, California.

In that fight, Navarrete was declared winner by technical decision as referee Ed Collantes — on the advice of the ring doctor — ordered a stop to the fight as Navarrete’s wound worsened.

Collantes earlier ruled that a punch caused the cut and Navarrete was leading on all scorecards at the moment of the stoppage.

As it turns out, based on a video replay, a legal blow caused the cut and Suarez should have been the winner by technical knockout.

Amid the controversy, the California State Athletic Commission overturned the decision into a No-Contest.

The WBO then came out with a ruling stating that Navarrete must face Suarez in a rematch immediately.