Boxing commentator Tim Bradley was impressed with Denys Berinchyk’s twelve-round split decision win over Emanuel Navarrete in the main event of their clash at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist Berinchyk captured the vacant WBO lightweight title with his victory.
Berinchyk’s Strategic Win
Bradley says the #1 ranked WBO lightweight contender Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) had a fix for everything that the former three-division world champion Navarrete (38-2-1, 31 KOs) did in the fight and took advantage of him being out of position.
The scores for the fight were 116-112 and 115-113 for Berinchyk and 116-112 for Navarrete.
Tim liked the way Berinchyk stayed close to Navarrete, smothering his offense and keeping him from using his power.
Berinchyk’s Awkwardness
“That was the sloppiest championship fight I’ve seen in my life, but Navarrete met his match in terms of awkwardness,” said ESPN commentator Tim Bradley to the media about last Saturday’s match between Emanuel Navarrete and Denys Berinchyk for the vacant WBO lightweight title.
“That dude [Berinchyk] was just as awkward if not more awkward than Navarrete but he was more technically sound in a sense to where he was like a situational type of fighter.
Bradley felt that Berinchyk was awkward, even more so than Navarrete. I didn’t see any awkwardness from Berinchyk.
He looked very skilled, used his footwork to land shots and get out of the way of Navarrete’s punches, and didn’t look awkward at all from Berinchyk. Some fans on social media felt that Bradley seemed biased in favor of Navarrete, one of Top Rank’s fighters.
“He had a fix for everything Navarrete did, and he caught him when he was out of position a lot of the times. Where I see where footwork issues when Navarrete steps back, brings his feet together, and goes against the ropes, and he took advantage of those moments,” said Bradley.
Berinchyk’s Strategy: Smothering Navarrete’s Offense
“He would stay close and smother Navarrete’s work. So big ups to Berinchyk and his team. They fought a phenomenal fight. I thought they intertwined all the styles that gives Navarrete issues even with his footwork, which I thought was pretty on point,” said Bradley.
The management for Navarrete made the mistake of choosing to target the WBO lightweight title because he doesn’t possess the boxing skills to beat a fighter as technically sound as Berinchyk. The only chance Navarrete had was scoring a knockout, or winning a controversial decision.
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