Emmanuel Navarrete defeated Oscar Valdez in a rematch on Saturday night.

The accurate and aggressive Navarrete impressed in his return to the 130-pound division, taking Valdez to the head and body in the main event of the 10-fight event at Footprint Center in Phoenix All hit this point. Navarrete knocked out Valdez in rounds one, four and six to become the first opponent to stop the former two-division champion at distance.

With 30 seconds left in the sixth round, Navarrete’s left hand struck Valdez to the body, knocking him down for the third time. At 2 minutes and 42 seconds into the sixth round, referee Raul Caiz Jr. declared him out.

Mexican Navarrete (39 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss, 32 KOs) defeated the brave Valdez to retain the WBO junior lightweight title. Navarrete lost to Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk in 12 rounds in his last 135-pound match, and drew with Brazil’s Rob Rob in 12 rounds in the 130-pound match. After Robson Conceicao, his career began to recover. He won the Sterling Championship before Belinchik defeated him.

Valdez (32-3, 24 KOs) was knocked out for the first time in his 12-year, 35-fight career. The two-time Mexican Olympian’s only losses before Saturday night were a 12-round victory over Navarrete in August 2023 and Shakur Stevenson in April 2022.

Valdez, 34, nearly shed tears as he apologized to fans who were watching the rematch in person from Mexico.

“We’re trying to get a win,” Valdez told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “We really wanted it. We trained really hard for it. I want to say I’m sorry for all the people who came from all over to see me, from Sonora, Nogales, Phoenix. … …I hope I get better results. Thank you for coming and supporting me next time.”

Valdez sprained his right ankle after a knockdown in the first round. However, he later admitted that Navarrete was the main reason for his TKO failure.

“We slipped and fell and I hurt my ankle a little bit,” Valdez said. “But that’s no excuse. (Navarrete) is a great champion. I take my hat off to him.”

Navarrete admitted their second game wasn’t as easy as it historically looked on boxrec.com.

“Look, Oscar Valdez is very strong in this fight,” Navarrete said. “He kept going forward, so all I had to do was stop him and push him back. Because if you let Valdez come downhill at you, it’s going to be a long night.”

Navarrete knocked Valdez to the ground again with a left hook about 1:20 left in the sixth round at the start of Saturday night’s fight. Valdez tried to fight back, but the action came to an abrupt halt when Navarrete nailed him with the aforementioned left hook to the body.

Navarrete’s violent assault continued in the fifth round. Over the course of three minutes, the champion caught Valdez with a variety of punishing punches, and with seconds remaining in the fifth round, he delivered a devastating left uppercut that cut Valdez’s mouth. Hit the canvas.

With more than 1 minute and 40 seconds left in the fourth round, Navarrete’s left hook knocked Valdez down and sent him into the corner. Valdez steadied himself before going down and did his best to make the rest of the fourth round as competitive as possible.

However, just before the bell rang to end the fourth round, Navarrete landed multiple right hands on the retreating Valdez, who fell to the ground for the second time in the fight.

After being knocked down in the second round, Valdez bravely went toe-to-toe with Navarrete and used his considerable flurry of punches to help him halt Navarrete’s momentum for the time being. The taller, heavier and stronger Navarrete landed a right hand to the temple of the vulnerable Valdez with 25 seconds left in the first round, knocking him to the gloves and knees. From the beginning of this rematch, Navarrete appeared to be more efficient than when he lost to Belinchik.