Each day begins before the sun fully rises. After Refugio Navarro bids farewell to his children, he sips his coffee and heads off to Long Beach, California, for a grueling 10- to 12-hour shift as a machinist. Once the workday ends, there’s little rest. Navarro makes a quick stop at home before driving to Wild Card Boxing in Hollywood, where he puts in time as a trainer with assistant Marvin Somodio. Then it’s back to square one: Home, sleep, do it all over again the next day.
Refugio, known as “Cuco,” is a former boxer, part of a vast boxing family. He humbly calls himself “the worst of them” – which may be true. At the same time, it’s a bit of false modesty. Cuco’s brother Carlos Navarro once defeated Floyd Mayweather Jnr at the US Pan Am trials in 1995. Another brother, Jose Navarro, never won a world world title – but he fought for one on three separate occasions. Cuco’s nephews David and Jonathan are also distinguished amateurs as well as pros, and recently niece Chantel became the family’s first female pro.
But there is another Navarro – one who almost never got a chance to lace up a pair of gloves – who may wind up rivaling them all. Steven, a 20-year-old junior bantamweight, has been in only four fights as a professional but already has revealed a world of promise in them. By now, that comes as a shock to one – least of all Cuco. Steven is Cuco’s son and the fighter he trains. He is also the person he credits with saving his life.
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Despite the family legacy, Refugio never pressured Steven into boxing. If anything, he tried to keep him out of the ring.
“I didn’t want him to box in the beginning, but somehow he convinced me,” Refugio said. “I put him in the ring with another kid. They had about 10 amateur fights, and he did so good, man, that I started yelling and almost crying with happiness.”
But none of it happened immediately. “We had struggles in the past, especially myself,” Refugio said. He thinks back on a time when he was caught in the grip of “pretty strong drugs,” a dark chapter in which he nearly lost his family and hit rock bottom. “I’m talking the lowest of the lows,” he said. “I’m not proud of it. There were times I was just roaming the streets.”
When he had shown promise as a fighter as a child, it became his whole world. When he was old enough to strike out on his own to see more of it, he wasn’t ready for what he found.
“I boxed since I was eight years old and turned pro at 18,” Refugio said. “My dad never really gave me any freedom as a kid. It was always boxing, boxing, boxing. So when I finally had freedom, started having friends – that’s where I lost it.”
For Steven, 4-0 (3 KO), the journey took a different path entirely.
“I somehow got my mom to take me to a Muay Thai gym,” Steven said. “Once I started training, I slowly but surely started seeing my father sober. That was the only time I saw my father sober.”
Steven continued training Muay Thai, doing it more for his father than for himself. His heart wasn’t really in it. Like his uncles before him, Steven said, “I wanted to do boxing.”
It was at this point that Steven began to have his greatest influence – even greater than all his boxing success since. When Refugio finally relented and allowed Steven to get into the ring, the power of the moment and the profound bond that was created was – and still remains – an inspiration to his father. Refugio and Steven were hooked from that day forward.
“I saw the talent, and after that day, it was game over,” Refugio said. “He never gave me a hard time with the training sessions since he was 10, and I’m just happy and excited for what is next.”
Steven has dived headfirst into his pro career with the confidence of a kid who has been turning heads since long before signing any contracts. And although he is all about putting in the hours and sharpening his skills, if you ask him, fate has a say in all of this, too. From his dad fighting back his own demons to the kismet of adding strength and conditioning coach London Papamichael to the team, it feels like everything’s lining up just right for Steven. Coincidence? He’s not so sure.
“Every single person on my team has a crazy backstory,” Steven said.
Refugio admired Papamichael’s approach and recognized the need for help with Steven’s strength and conditioning, so he reached out through social media to ask Papamichael if he would train his son. The father also inquired about Papamichael’s willingness to work with someone under 18. “I’m willing to work with anyone who wants to improve,” Papamichael replied.
“I know what it’s like to grow up without a consistent male role model,” he said. “When I was 10, my father left after my parents split. From then on, I didn’t have a positive male figure in my life.”
By the age of 25, Papamichael – originally from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – was living with his mother to help her through her second divorce and to support his two younger sisters. “One is my full sister, and the other is my half-sister from my mom’s second marriage. Unfortunately, my mom developed an alcohol problem after her second divorce, so I stayed to help her while also being there for my sisters, since she was struggling with her mental health.”
The turning point in his life came on Mother’s Day. “I got the call that my mom had passed away at 47. Suddenly, I was 25, with no money, no father to call, no life insurance and two sisters to take care of – one was 18, the other 10.”
Whether or not it was fate that brought him into the Navarros’ lives, Papamichael was the right man for the right job at the right time.
“Part of Steven’s journey is growing up without his dad always being around,” he said. “I know what that’s like – wondering how things will work out, what it means to be a family. It’s been an honor to have a positive impact on these young fighters’ lives, because I needed that when I was their age.”
At this stage, Steven doesn’t appear to need a lot more. If he isn’t yet a fully baked contender, he isn’t just any prospect – and he will be the first to point it out. “A prospect is someone starting to make noise,” he said. “I was already making noise as an amateur.” That fits perfectly with the roadmap his father has laid out. “I believe,” he said, “I can make a world champion.”
Steven is scheduled to make his return December 7 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, facing Puerto Rico’s Gabriel Bernardi, 7-1 (3 KOs). With a team built on unexpected but meaningful connections, Steven feels like everything is falling into place.
“Somehow, our paths crossed, and we all have the same drive,” Steven said of his team. And now, for him, these aren’t just days and weeks of hard work and training – they are destiny unfolding in real time.
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