Charly Suarez is neck-deep in training in Las Vegas knowing that a world title fight is next.
Given what has happened the past week or so, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
You see, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) has virtually approved Emanuel Navarrete’s defense of the super-featherweight strap — alongside his International Boxing Federation strap — versus O’Shaquie Foster, the World Boxing Council titleholder on 24 October in San Antonio, Texas.
The three-belt unification match is sure to get the go-signal anytime soon as promoters are set to start drum beating the 130-pound mega matchup.
Suarez, who gave way to Navarrete early this year so the Mexican could strike a hefty payday, is once again in the same weird position.
Despite being the WBO’s mandatory challenger the last year or so, Suarez is still waiting for that all-important call to challenge for a world title, a right he acquired when he got screwed by authorities the first time he rumbled with Navarrete in May 2025 in San Diego.
Here is a classic case of a mandatory challenger being subjected to one of boxing’s wildest tricks.
Instead of getting his shot at Navarrete late last year as mandated by the WBO itself, Suarez is being made into a joke once again by boxing’s bigwigs as though he is some guy begging for crumbs.
At first, it was understandable when Navarrete was allowed to fight fellow Mexican Eduardo Nunez, then the IBF champion, since under the rules, a unification match supersedes a mandatory defense.
Okay.
Navarrete did get what he wanted.
But back-to-back unification fights?
Now, that’s something that is below-the-belt. Unprofessional. Low blow. A cheap shot.
Call it whatever you like but what the WBO will be doing in case it doesn’t uphold Suarez’s rights is unacceptable.
To remedy the problem, Suarez proposed that Navarrete go ahead with his plans to meet Foster provided that he vacates the WBO throne.
