Boxing In Argentina: Narvaez Retains WBO Title, Passes Monzon’s Record

ByAlejandro Tostado

Last night in front of 5,000 fans at Nuevo Palacio Aurinegro in Puerto Madryn, South America’s top boxer was in fine form as WBO Flyweight Champion Omar Andres Narvaez stopped the challenge of top American Raytona Whitfield.

It was a clash of two undefeated men with the taller Whitfield towering over the smaller southpaw champion but what “El Huracan” lacked in height, he more than made up in heart and aggressiveness.

Whitfield tried to keep the champion at bay in the initial rounds with the jab and good foot movement but Narvaez managed to make it a close quarters tear up, negating the American’s advantages.

At 33 years of age, Narvaez continued to display his mastery in the ring, as Whitfield was unable to penetrate the champion’s tight defense nor stop the southpaw from coming forward effectively.

The middle rounds saw Narvaez mount a heavily one sided campaign and Whitfield’s cause was further damaged when he lost points in the seventh and ninth frames for use of the elbow.

By the tenth round, Narvaez was dishing out a high level of punishment, forcing referee Samuel Viruet to stop the bout and Whitfield’s chances of taking home the WBO belt.

With the win Narvaez improves to 29-0-2 (18) and overtakes legendary middleweight champion Carlos Monzon’s Argentine record of 14 world title defenses by making the 15th consecutive defense of the WBO Flyweight belt.

Whitfield suffers his first loss despite a good showing at times, dropping to 22-1 (11).

One of the more amazing aspects of Narvaez’s reign is that he has overcome getting hit by a car as a pedestrian in his hometown of Cordoba, an accident that left him with reduced abilities and power in his left arm.

With Monzon’s record firmly eclipsed, Narvaez could possibly be targeting another world champion in a long awaited title unification bout.

The undercard saw the unbeaten run of WBO Latino and Argentine Featherweight Champion Jonathan Victor Barros, 24-0-1 (14), continue as the 25 year old Mendoza man KO’d Chilean Champion Cristian “Tigre” Palma, 8-4-1 (3), in the fifth frame.