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 Navarro Looks Golden
By Steve Kim (January 20, 2003)
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Jose Navarro christened the re-opening of the Grand Olympic Auditorium in style with an impressive second round stoppage of veteran Carlos Madrigal this past Thursday night. It was exactly the type of eye-opening performance that catapults prospects to the next level.
His bout with Madrigal was the opening bout on Oscar De La Hoya's promotional debut on HBO Latino. 'Boxeo De Oro' was created and designed for young Latin fighters to showcase themselves and develop their skills on their way to bigger and better things. In addition to those watching at home, Navarro would impress the crowd of over 5,000 at the Olympic Auditorium.
"It was a good performance, I wasn't able to demonstrate what I really had learned in the last few months," Navarro said afterwards outside the arena where he was greeted by friends and family. "I've improved a lot, the fight ended a little earlier than everybody expected -- including myself. I got him with a good punch that ended the fight early. But it's not going to stop me, I'm just going to keep learning and getting better."
Navarro came into this bout with a mark of 14-0, after representing the U.S. Olympic team in 2000. The bout with Madrigal represented his biggest professional challenge to date and with the fight looming, Navarro headed to his first extended training camp with his trainer Frank Rivera.
"We left during the holidays," explained Rivera, "we left December 15th, we relocated to Palm Springs and we sparred and trained at the Coachella Gym which was 35 to 40 minutes away from our housing. So there was a lot of dedication, there was only two of us -- Jose and myself -- we used the Coachella guys for sparring, the best sparring partners in the world."
The Coachella Gym, which is run by Lee Espinoza, is best known for bringing up the likes of Antonio and Julio Diaz and is known for it's hard-nosed sparring sessions.
"They came forward, all of them were 126-130 pounders and I told Lee not to hold anything back, to just let loose on Jose and Jose handled it and he had a hard camp," said Rivera. "There were some days where he took his licks and wasn't sure if it was worth it being out there for a fight like this. By the end of the week we'd talk to ourselves and say, 'It's gonna pay off because we had to match Madrigal's grit. We knew he had big balls, a lot of heart. He couldn't match our legs, youth and our skill -- and that camp gave us that."
Navarro agreed.
"It made a big difference the fact that I was in camp focusing. Just staying away from bills and friends and all that, it keeps me more focused in the gym," he said. And it wasn't only the gym work that made it tough. "Having to live with my trainer for a whole month made it a lot tougher," he added with a laugh.
The book on the soft-spoken Navarro, whose older brother Carlos also boxed professionally, was that he was a smart technician and a sharp counter-puncher but really didn't possess a hard punch or great physical prowess. But his 'man' strength and punching power seem to be coming along as he matures.
"Yeah, I believe I'm getting stronger," Navarro states. "Me and my trainer have been working on that. It's not something I was born with. We saw that it was one of my weaknesses, we worked on it and the good thing is now it's showing up and we'll keep doing the same thing to get better."
Navarro has stopped three out of his last four opponents and he was able to hurt Madrigal with every meaningful punch he landed. He would send Madrigal to the canvas three times in the second round before the bout was mercifully halted. But to be fair, while he is getting noticibly stronger (especially in his legs), the Madrigal win was also a result of some keen matchmaking. Madrigal had been stopped in two of his three losses coming in -- his pro debut in one round and a second round knockout at the hands of the tough Oscar Andrade last January -- so his chin could best be described as questionable.
But make no doubt about it, Navarro is making the necessary adjustments to the pro game.
"I knew that him being an amatuer and having an Olympian style, that it would be a gradual process of getting him away from the point system and start sitting down on some of his punches and coming forward and working with some leverage with confidence and being comfortablem," said Rivera, of his pupils transformation from an amateur to a pro.
"I knew it was a long process," he continued, "But at the same time it would give him longevity to his career. So it was a patient thing, not to lose faith in his ability and my ability as far as developing into a contender and hopefully a world champion."
Navarro realizes that he still has a ways to go before becoming a complete and seasoned professional:
"Y'know, I've always been a calm fighter, I've never been a slugger, I've always been a smart fighter, a counter-puncher," he said. "I think it helped me a lot as a pro. I still need to learn how to be patient because now I'm fighting 12 rounds. The fights are getting tougher but I've always thought that I've had more of a pro style than an amateur style."
But people have taken notice of his improvement.
"I don't think there's any fighter out of the Olympics who's improved more steadily, fight-to-fight than Jose," said his advisor Lou DiBella, who signed a host of Navarro's Olympic teamates to contracts. "And I think that he's always been a tremendously talented boxer. Far above other guys his age, in terms of his knowledge on how to move around the ring. But the last half-dozen fights, he's discovered his punching power and I couldn't be happier with Jose's progress right now. I think Jose is as close to challenging for a world title as anyone who came out of the 2000 Olympics. And I think he is probably the kid who improved the most since he's turned pro."
And DiBella admits that Navarro has surprised him after a slow start. Navarro, in addition to failing to knock people out, would also be sent to the canvas himself early in his career.
"He's surprised me with his resolve and we discussed seven or eight fights into his career, he had a hard time knocking people out and it didn't look like his power was translating as a pro," he said. "But I think Frank Rivera has done a very good job training him and the kid has really learned how to sit down on his punches and he's doing it with the same movement and the same boxing ability he showed in the beginning. But all of a sudden now the killer instinct is there and the punching powers there and I'm thrilled with the kids progress and I'm thrilled for him because I think Jose's really on the road to becoming a world champion.
"It you saw the fight (with Madrigal) and you understand that Carlos Madrigal is a real professional, then you appreciate the performance the kid gave. It may have been the best performance of any 2000 Olympian."
GRAND REOPENING
It was a great start to De La Hoya's 'Boxeo De Oro' series on HBO Latino. In addition to Navarro's impressive performance, Oscar Larios and Marcos Lincona put on quite a show for 10 rounds with Larios, the WBC jr. featherweight titlist, taking a wider-than-expected decision.
The whole card, top-to-bottom was very good and enjoyed by the crowd of over 5,000 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. It may not be a huge number, but very good considering the early start time in Los Angeles, coupled with the traffic of the adjacent freeways at that hour.
There really isn't a bad seat in that arena and when you get a few people in the seats, you can really feel the atmosphere and get into the fights. Now, all we need is a return of roller derby and 'the Los Angeles Thunderbirds' to that joint.
BARRER-HUH?
This has to be the year of the mismatch. Most boxing fans and observers would tell you that Shane Mosley-Raul Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya-Yory Boy Campas and Acelino Freitas-Gabriel Ruelas aren't going to be the most competitive of bouts. Now, there is talk of Marco Antonio Barrera taking on Kevin Kelley on an April pay-per-view show.
It seems that Barrera and his management for some reason, are reluctant to face a Mexican national. Uh, hate to break it to you guys but as a featherweight, you really don't have much of a choice. That would be like a heavyweight not wanting to face an African-American fighter. Also, when was the last time Barrera even fought in Mexico? Why would he even care about some sort of backlash he would get for fighting a fellow Mexican? Maybe it's there way of saying they don't want to face Erik Morales for a third time or Juan Manuel Marquez, if he should down Manny Medina on February 1st. I'd much rather see Barrera take on a Guty Espadas, InJin Chi or Oscar Larios than a Kelley at this point.
NON-SMOKING
It was no surprise that Manny Pacquiao and his management decided against facing Derrik Gainer. The bottom line is that with or without a title, DiBella, who recently inked 'Smoke' will have problems getting him meaningful fights.
And now that he's not with Roy Jones anymore, he'll have even more problems getting exposure. His place has obviously has been taken by another avoided southpaw Winky Wright -- who I guess is the jr. middlweight Gainer -- that was just added to the March 1st undercard when Jones faced John Ruiz on HBO Pay-Per-View.
PRETTY BOY
WBC lightweight titlist Floyd Mayweather will be facing WBA champ Leo Dorin at Madison Square Garden on April 19th.
You gotta give Floyd this, he doesn't duck anybody and he takes on all challengers.
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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