Referee Faces Ban After Emanuel Navarrete Controversy, Confirms California Commission Head

For the 36-year-old Charly Suarez, the WBO super featherweight title bout against Emanuel Navarrete presented his first-ever shot at a world title, following a clean 18-0 pro record. So, when the two faced off at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, Calif. on Saturday, judges Fernando Villareal and Lou Moret scored it 77-76 and Pat Russell, 78-75 — all in favor of Navarrete, who escaped with a technical decision victory that helped him retain the title. But the catch was, the result could have easily gone the other way.

The fight began with Navarrete using his reach and awkward angles to control the early rounds. But as the bout progressed, Suarez began to find his rhythm, countering effectively in the middle rounds.

• In the sixth round, Suarez landed a clean left hook just before the fighters clashed heads. By the time both their heads separated, a cut opened above Navarrete’s left eye in a matter of seconds.
• Referee Edward Collantes quickly ruled the injury to be the result of an accidental headbutt.
• What divided the room was the fact that many, including the ones who were in the commentary box, believed it was Suarez’s left hook that caused the cut although there was a headbutt that followed soon after. On top of that, considering the fight was haulted for a good 45 seconds after Navarette first suffered the cut, Collantes ruling came before a review. Sure, CSAC used replay to review Collantes’ call but the angles they had at the time didn’t have anything substantial to overturn the ruling and attribute the cause of the cut to a punch.
• The fight continued into the seventh round, where the two continued to trade heavy shots. But the Mexican soon began to bleed profusely, and the ringside physician Dr. Robert Ruelaz, who examined his cut when he first suffered it, at the beginning of the 7th round, finally waved it off just after the bell sounded to start round eight. But the story was far from over yet!
• After the decision had already been taken, ESPN floated a replay from an angle that showed the cut Navarrete suffered was indeed from a left hand by Suarez. If this would have been available at the time, Navarette would have lost by TKO as per this regulatory guideline by ABC: “When a cut is produced by a legal punch and the fight is stopped because of that cut, the injured boxer shall lose by Technical Knock-out, and the Commission shall inscribe in the records the letters TKO (loss by technical knock-out).”

Fact of the matter is, Referee Edward Collantes has since come under heavy scrutiny. “Edward Collantes will not be refereeing a high-profile boxing match in the foreseeable [future],” tweeted California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) executive director Andy Foster in the aftermath. However, just hours later, Foster took back his statement, deleted the post, and replied to that tweet: “We have change[d] our minds about Ed Collantes. He is a fine referee, and we look forward to having him referee again soon. In fact, this weekend,” he replied to his own tweet.

Now, in a development, Foster walked back his statement again, as he deleted the second tweet.  The CSAC is now reviewing the fight’s outcome, and a decision on whether to overturn the result to a no-contest is pending.

Regardless, now the question is what the fighters had to say about Navarrete’s cut?

Top Comment by namewithheld

I think proper authorities should come & investigate CSAC

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Emanuel Navarrete and Charly Suarez share their perspective

It was a grueling weight cut for Navarrete, and he seemed to perform well in the fight. So, reflecting on the stoppage, he said, “From the first moment of the impact, I knew it was a head-butt and it split my eye completely.” Now ‘Vaquero’ is thinking things over about whether to stay at 130 pounds or move to 135. 

“We’ll recover [from] the cut, but I felt good, strong, and complete. We’ll take things calmly and make a decision if we stay at 130, or try again at 135 pounds,” he added. Meanwhile, Suarez has maintained that the cut opened due to a legitimate punch rather than head butt. “I hit him with the right straight,” Suarez said. “I want Navarrete again.”

That said, there’s a good possibility that there will be a rematch if the result gets overturned. However, only time will tell what fate holds for the two boxers. What did you think about the incident? Was it a headbutt? Or a clean punch?