Emanuel Navarette, who holds the WBO featherweight belt, meets Liam Wilson for the vacant WBO junior lightweight belt on Friday at the Glendale, Arizona’s Desert Diamond Arena in the USA.
Wilson (11-1; 7), who is listed at No. 3 in the WBO ratings, comes in as a late substitute for the injured Oscar Valdez and will have a battle against the more fancied Navarette.
The 26-year-old Wilson from Caboolture, Queensland, Australia made his pro debut in June 2018 and went on to win the Australian junior lightweight title with a 10-round unanimous points decision over Brian Rice (8-0).
His only loss came against Joe Noynay, who stopped him in the fifth round.
However, in a return match six months later, he knocked out Noynay in the second round and in his most recent fight in June last year, he outpointed Matras Carlos Adrian Rueda over 10 rounds to win the WBO international junior lightweight title.
The 28-year-old Navarette (36-1; 30) from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Distrito Federal, Mexico won the WBO junior featherweight belt in December 2018 with a points win over Isaac Dogboe.
He has made successful defences against Dogboe (tko 12), Francisco DeVaca (ko 3), Juan Manuel Elorde (tko 4), Francisco Horta (tko 4) and Joe Santisima (tko 4), before winning the WBO featherweight belt against Ruben Villa (pts 12) and making successful defences against Christopher Diaz (tko 12), Joet Gonzalez (pts 12) and Eduardo Baez (ko 6).
His only loss came against Daniel Aqueta in his sixth fight, losing on points over four rounds.
He now hopes to win his third world belt and the betting sites have him as the favourite. Some critics are even predicting an inside-the-distance win for Navarette.
On the undercard, unbeaten junior welterweight Arnold Barboza Jr (27-0; 10), who is rated at No 4 by the WBO, meets Jose Pedraza (29-4-1; 14).