WBO super bantamweight world champion Emmanuel Navarrete (26-1 22KOs) was largely unknown last December, somewhat assumed by most to be a stay busy fight for then-champion Isaac Dogboe (20-1 14KOs), who seemed to have star written all over him. No one informed Navarrete though.

Navarrete soundly outboxed Dogboe, who looked pedestrian, and very limited when the small five-foot-two-inch frame of Dogboe had no success against the five-foot-seven-inch frame of Navarrete.

The rematch will be telling as the Zanfer Promotions boxer, Navarrete, was rather unheralded up until this point and Dogboe might have been praised a bit too much making their world title clash on Saturday, televised on ESPN, and taking place at the Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona, a crossroads fight.

“It was a surreal moment when they announced me as the new champion. I was very happy to meet my goal, and now I am ready to defend the title successfully. It motivates me to know that the first fight was so good that everyone wants an immediate rematch.” said Navarrete at the media day on Wednesday.

Up until Navarrete’s world title win, his career had taken place solely in Mexico. In fact his lone career loss to Daniel Argueta, in a bout he did lose in his sixth professional bout, has an asterisk next to it since Argueta didn’t appear to the weigh-in and despite “losing”, Navarrete was ruled the winner.

Navarrete is one of these confusing fighters in which you can’t get a good read on. He can punch, he can box, but to what extent. He was brought in to bang with Dogboe more than likely and outboxed him, surprising all, outside of his fans.

As for Dogboe, this is a tough pill to swallow. Dogboe was on his way to super-fights and cult stardom. Dogboe’s “NEHO” chant was odd and beloved amongst the hardcore boxing fans, and his devastating power punching ability reeled in fans across the board. The problem is, Navarrete showed that Dogboe really struggles with length and the ability to close the distance against an active, bigger fighter.

The fighter is one of the more interesting bouts of the year as it was essentially one year ago, when Dogboe became a highly viewed fighter, now a year later, he is fighting for his relevancy in the sport of boxing. As for Navarrete, he is looking to be labeled a top 5 super bantamweight and potentially become one of the names in the division.